Home Archives for HEALTH TOPICS AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS
August 26, 2014

Healing Hashimotos Thyroiditis

Healing Hashimotos ThyroiditisPlease join me for my webinar replay interview of my guest Jillian Burne, NTC, CHHC, AADP in which we discuss ways of healing Hashimotos Thyroiditis. Sign up below to listen to the webinar replay:

Jillian has become my go-to practitioner for understanding Hashimotos Thyroiditis, which is the most common cause of low thyroid function. However, most doctors fail to diagnose it and treat it properly.

Jillian Burne educates clients on how the body works, what it needs to function optimally, and how to navigate today’s challenging food climate for better health outcomes.

She uses a combination of nutrition and medical diagnostics to get to the root of a client’s health issues. Creating custom diet and lifestyle programs to effectively target weaknesses and rebuild health from a foundational stand point.

Jillian’s Story:
A chance encounter with a functional medicine doctor led to blood work that revealed she has a condition called Hashimotos Thyroiditis.

In an effort to understand what that really means she started researching autoimmune, the role of nutrients and food in regard to the immune system, as well as supplements and alternative therapies for treatment.

The knowledge she gained empowered her to reverse her condition. Now she’s focused on helping others do the same.

Filed Under: AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, ENDOCRINE ISSUES, HEALTH TOPICS, THYROID DISEASE Tagged:
July 17, 2014

Turmeric and Ginger: Two South Asian Power Foods

Turmeric and Ginger: Two South Asian Power FoodsOne of the great discoveries I made in my health-recovery journey was learning that food can be medicine. Ann Wigmore said it best, I think: “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

You’re either eating foods that are health-supportive or health-destructive. The Standard American Diet (SAD)’s processed foods are not only virtually void of any nutrients, but they are also typically full of harmful ingredients like artificial colors, artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and additives like MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and other neurotoxins.

If you’ve read my blogs before, you know that I believe that whole foods are health-supportive. Whole foods are ones that look very much like what they did when they were alive and growing.

For example, instead of thinking that whole-wheat bread is a whole food (it’s not), think instead about where the flour came from: the wheat berry.

For a health-supportive diet, a whole-foods diet is the basis for feeling better. I recommend that, in addition to this, you look at foods that are anti-inflammatory in nature. These are typically herbs and spices, as well as brightly colored fruits and vegetables.

Traditional Diets

In my love of cooking and search for health for myself and my family, I have also discovered that traditional diets are very health-promoting. Think about it: before people had refrigeration and preservatives, how did they eat?

They ate foods that had been preserved with salt, fermentation or by drying. They also ate foods that were only in season, which is a core tenet of the macrobiotic diet. And they also prized herbs and spices not only for their strong flavors, but also for their medicinal properties.

In fact, most, if not all, ancient medicinal traditions use herbal medicine. Some of these herbs and spices are ones that are eaten daily, and some are used for medicinal purposes only.

Anti-Inflammatory Spices

South Asian foods from India are examples of foods that contain a lot of two of my favorite anti-inflammatory spices, turmeric and ginger.

Turmeric is not only anti-inflammatory, but it’s also anti-fungal, anti-aging, anti-cancer (anti-mutagenic), anti-diabetic and lowers symptoms of dementia. It’s great for the pains of arthritis and headaches, protects against damaging effects of radiation, protects against heavy-metal toxicity.

What’s not to love about turmeric besides the fact that it’ll stain your hands and clothes yellow if you’re not careful?

Ginger is another powerhouse food that has been used in both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years. In Western cultures, we typically think of ginger as a nausea reliever, but ginger is a powerful anti-inflammatory spice as well.

Ginger also reduces symptoms of dementia seen in Alzheimer’s (likely because of its anti-inflammatory properties), and it’s also anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic and anti-viral. In addition, it decreases the pain from working out too hard as well as from migraines. Consumption of ginger has been proven to lower blood pressure, too.

You don’t have to eat South Asian foods to get these spices into your diet, although I will say I love Indian and Asian food! To get you started in incorporating turmeric and ginger into your diet, I’ve provided a couple of my favorite recipes:

Filed Under: ALZHEIMER'S, ANTIOXIDANTS, ARTHRITIS, CANCER, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, GENERAL, HEALTH TOPICS, INFLAMMATION, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES, NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES, OTHER DISEASES, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD), TYPE 2 DIABETES
June 4, 2014

Recovery from Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Other Chronic Illnesses

Recovery from Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Other Chronic IllnessesI want to let you know what the Documenting Hope Project means to me:  hope.

By making this film in which we will document the potential recovery of 14 children from autism, ADHD, asthma, atopic dermatitis, mood disorders, juvenile RA and type 2 diabetes, I believe people will come to know what I do:  that recovery is possible.

If you know that recovery is possible, then you have hope.

In this film, we’ll be rigorously documenting the therapies, lab work, diets, healing modalities and biomedical approaches that are used in each child’s healing protocol.

I wish something like this had been around when my boys were younger.  Back then, it was enough for me to figure out finally that they had Sensory Processing Disorder, which I call “almost autism”.

It took loads of research on my end to understand that their developmental delays, hypotonia, asthma, allergies, eczema, failure to thrive, projectile vomiting and acid reflux were all related.

It took even more researching and networking to discover that recovery from autism is possible.  If kids can be recovered from autism, and Sensory Processing Disorder is like a subset of autism, then my boys could be recovered from SPD.

I discovered a hidden world of what’s called the “biomedical” approach to healing, which is what functional medicine is:  Getting to the root cause of a symptom, illness or disorder.

The problem was, and is, that most doctors just don’t know about this type of approach.  Thankfully, functional medicine doctors like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Susan Blum and Dr. Frank Lipman are showing us that food is medicine and that toxicity, gut dysbiosis, hormonal imbalances and nutritional deficiencies are the ultimate causes of just about any kind of chronic disease or disorder.

Filed Under: ADHD, ANXIETY, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, BIPOLAR DISORDER, DEPRESSION, ECZEMA, HEALTH TOPICS, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, OTHER DISEASES, RECOVERY STORIES, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, TYPE 2 DIABETES Tagged:
April 7, 2014

Book Review: The Diet Cure

Now, you might think it strange that I’m writing a book review for “The Diet Cure” by Julia Ross.  While I am a health coach, I don’t specialize in weight loss.  Instead, I specialize in helping people recover from symptoms of chronic neurological and/or autoimmune issues like autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma, SPD, lupus, fibromyalgia, Lyme and more.

But I don’t like throwing the baby out with the bath water, so I read the book to see what’s in it for my clients.  There’s a lot!

In the book, Ms. Ross teaches us about adrenal, thyroid, yeast-overgrowth, nutritional deficiencies, fatty-acid deficiency, food sensitivities and blood-sugar issues, which are all common in my clients (both the children and their mothers) and how many of these issues can be controlled with diet (food choices) as well as amino acid therapy.

She recommends a whole-foods diet for all of these issues, as well as an Atkins-ish diet especially for those with blood sugar issues. It’s about the elimination of sugar with an emphasis on protein and fats to keep you full.  For anyone that’s ever done the Atkins diet, you know that one piece of bread will send you into a carb-lover’s binge-fest.

Ms. Ross provides us with the missing links for why the Atkins diet is not successful in the long run:

  • “Dr. Atkins did not know that carbs could be more addictive than cocaine.”
  • “Dr. Atkins specifically did not recognize the addictive power of grains, particularly wheat, for many people.”

The key to overcoming carb and sugar addiction is the addition of the amino acids that Ms. Ross recommends.

The book goes step-by-step into explaining how the factors I mentioned above as well as depleted brain chemistry and malnutrition from chronic dieting make it almost impossible to stay at a healthy weight.  Ms. Ross also shows us how to correct these imbalances.

Given that Ms. Ross has headed up the Recovery Systems Clinic for many years, she has dealt with the full gamut of different types of addiction (drug, alcohol and food).  She writes that the reason her clinic is so successful is because of the use of amino acid therapy to correct these biochemical imbalances in the brain and elsewhere.  It’s not willpower; it’s biochemistry.

When I read this book, I took a step back and looked at it from my perspective of not only a health coach but also the media director and a board member of Epidemic Answers, a non-profit that lets parents know that recovery is possible from autism, ADHD, SPD, allergies, asthma, autoimmune and more.

We let parents know WHY there is such an epidemic of children’s chronic illnesses:  it’s a perfect storm of the Standard American diet that is nutritionally deficient, the overuse of antibiotics, toxins in our environment, stressful lifestyles and gut dysbiosis (an imbalance of good vs. bad gut flora).

But when I read this book, I thought, “Huh.  All those women that have been on nutritionally deficient diets for years since at least the 1970’s are having kids, and those kids are being born with nutritional deficiencies that are compounded by gut dysbiosis, toxicity and stress.  No wonder we’re seeing such epidemics of autism, ADHD, allergies and more.”

Moms being on nutritionally deficient diets isn’t the only reason for this epidemic, but it certainly plays a key, overlooked role.

I’ll be hosting Ms. Ross on my upcoming webinar on April 23, 2014 at 1:00pm ET.  We’ll be discussing these imbalances and how to correct them with amino acids and diet, and you can sign up for your chance to ask questions here.

 

Filed Under: ADHD, ADRENAL FATIGUE, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, BOOK REVIEWS, CANDIDA, DIGESTIVE ISSUES, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, GENERAL, GLUTEN SENSITIVITY, GUT DYSBIOSIS, HEALING FATS, HEALTH TOPICS, LEAKY GUT, LYME DISEASE, LYME DISEASE, MEDIA, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES, SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER, STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD), TOXINS, YEAST INFECTIONS Tagged: , , ,
April 1, 2014

Diet Soda and Aspartame

diet sodaI saw another pleasant surprise in today’s Wall Street Journal:  sales of diet sodas fell for the ninth straight year because more consumers are increasingly becoming wary of aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in diet sodas “despite decades of studies by the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies”.

Some consumers are finally catching on to the fact that just because the FDA says it’s safe, doesn’t mean it really is.  Perhaps they understand that the fox is guarding the henhouse and that these agencies often don’t look out for our best interests, as we would expect that they do.

Diet Soda and Aspartame

Aspartame, a genetically modified ingredient used as an artificial sweetener in diet sodas, converts to formaldehyde in the body and has been linked to migraines, fibromyalgia and even seizures. Formaldehyde is a carcinogen that’s used to embalm corpses. Wanna become one faster? Drink diet soda.

Recent studies have shown that people who drink diet soda typically fail to lose weight or worse, gain even more weight, because their metabolisms are tricked into storing fat by the sweet taste of aspartame.  It’s not just a “calories in, calories out” equation because the biochemical reaction of our brain reacting to the sweet taste isn’t accounted for in the equation.

Don’t think you’re off the hook if you’re drinking regular, sugar-laden soda.  Honestly, it’s a tough call as to which one is worse, but you can read more about my thoughts about it in the Dangers of Drinking Soda.

Filed Under: AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, FIBROMYALGIA, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, HEALTH TOPICS, STANDARD AMERICAN DIET (SAD)
March 4, 2014

The New Nutrition Label

The New Nutrition LabelThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just announced proposed changes to the nutrition label.  Overall, I think these changes might make a positive and meaningful difference to our country’s health, at least to those who pay attention to food labels.  Here’s a breakdown of what I think are the positive changes:

  • More accurate serving size.  This is the big winner here because it reflects what people currently eat in one sitting.  Most people don’t carefully measure out ½ cup of ice cream for a serving; they eat half the pint instead, so the new label will reflect that reality.
  • Big emphasis on “Total Calories”.  This will be in a much-larger font size so that it really grabs your attention.  It’s kind of like the angel on your shoulder saying, “Do you REALLY want to eat that many calories?”
  • The addition of “Added Sugars” to the label.  Now people will know exactly how much sugar that food manufacturers have been adding to our food.  The problem with our misguided focus on eating low-fat foods is that it comes with the added cost of nasty chemicals to achieve the same “mouth-feel” as well as added sugar.  Fat and sugar both make food taste better.  If you’re taking out one (fat), you’re likely replacing it with more of the other (sugar).Rhetorical question:  Is it coincidental that at the same time we’ve been eating low-fat foods (remember, saturated fats were supposed to have been causing cardiovascular disease), there has been a skyrocketing epidemic of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity?  I think not!  It’s the sugar, folks!  And many times, it’s not listed as “sugar” on the ingredient label, so it can be tricky to figure out just where those calories are coming from.
  • Elimination of “Calories from Fat”.  Unfortunately, we’ve become fat-phobic in this country, as I explained above.  I wish we could become sugar-phobic instead, but sugar causes a dopamine rush, meaning that eating it is addictive and makes you (temporarily) feel good, so that’s probably not going to happen!
  • The addition of “Vitamin D” RDA percentage.  This country is in the midst of a vitamin-D epidemic deficiency, and it’s a factor that plays a large part in the epidemics of autism, allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, so having people pay attention to vitamin-D rich foods is a plus.  I’m betting, however, that most of them will be supplemented with synthetic vitamin D (vitamin D2) instead of the natural form (vitamin D3), so this is going to create another game for food manufacturers:  they will probably just add a lot of synthetic vitamin D so they can claim that it’s “rich in vitamin D”.
  • The addition of “Potassium” RDA percentage.  Potassium lowers blood pressure, so it’s a good idea to put this on the label, especially since so many people (young ones, too!) have hypertension these days.

The problem is that some people just don’t pay attention to food labels and portion sizes.  They’re going to eat whatever portion is set in front of them, which is why ex-mayor Bloomberg of New York tried to tax soft drinks over 8 ounces – do we really need to drink a Big Gulp?  The documentary “Super Size Me” did a great job of showing us how this kind of portion creep is making us fatter.

Nutrition-label improvements are mostly a moot point for me, personally, as I don’t buy very many foods that come with a food label on them.  I recommend you do the same.

This is a guest-blog post I wrote for Dr. Henri Roca, MD.

Filed Under: ALLERGIES, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, GUEST BLOGS, HEALTH TOPICS, MEDIA, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, OTHER DISEASES, TYPE 2 DIABETES
March 2, 2014

Inflammation

What’s so important about inflammation?

Discover 12 Powerful Ways to Reduce Inflammation - small3Inflammation causes pain, swelling, heat, redness and loss of function. Left untreated, it can lead to bodily tissue destruction, fibrosis and necrosis. Remember, pain is a signal that something’s wrong.

Who has inflammation?

Inflammation is a root cause of many chronic illnesses such as autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma, eczema, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Help!  How do I reduce it?

Sign up for this free report!  In it, I’ll show you many simple things you can do with the foods that you’re eating to reduce inflammation.  And when that happens, you may not have as much pain, stiffness and swelling.

 

Filed Under: ADHD, ALLERGIES, ALZHEIMER'S, ANXIETY, ARTHRITIS, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, BIPOLAR DISORDER, CANCER, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, DEPRESSION, DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS, DIGESTIVE ISSUES, ECZEMA, FIBROMYALGIA, GENERAL, HEALTH TOPICS, INFLAMMATION, LEARNING DISABILITIES, LYME DISEASE, LYME DISEASE, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, OCD, OTHER DISEASES, PANDAS, PARKINSON'S, RETAINED REFLEXES, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, SCHIZOPHRENIA, SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER, TYPE 1 DIABETES, TYPE 2 DIABETES Tagged:
February 7, 2014

Formaldehyde in Johnson and Johnson Products

Formaldehyde in Johnson and Johnson ProductsFormaldehyde in Johnson and Johnson products? For decades, Americans have come to believe that Johnson and Johnson’s products are perhaps the best choice for their babies.  I know that when my boys were little, I was given lots of little samples of their shampoos, body washes and powders for babies.

Now, Johnson and Johnson is finally yielding to pressure and changing the formulas of their personal-care products to remove known carcinogens:  formaldehyde (released by the ubiquitous quaternium-15) and 1,4-dioxane.  WHY WERE THESE ALLOWED TO BE IN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

I think it’s because we’ve collectively fallen asleep at the wheel.  I think most Americans assume, as I used to, that if it’s sold in a store, it must be safe because surely the FDA has tested it for safety.  NOT TRUE.

Most people don’t know that ingredients applied to your skin bypass the liver, meaning that those toxins are free to float around your baby’s body and inflict harm.

The sad thing is that we’ve placed our trust in this and other companies because we’ve been led to believe, by millions of dollars spent on marketing and advertising, that their products are safe.

The really sad thing is that our children are being born pre-polluted, and adding known carcinogens to their personal-care products is only hastening the time that they reach toxic overload.  This is one of the, if not THE, main reason why there is an epidemic of children’s chronic illnesses today, such as autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma and autoimmune.  As Jon Stewart said, “And that’s just the A’s”.

Filed Under: ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, CANCER, CARCINOGENS, GENERAL, HEALTH TOPICS, HEALTHY BABY, OTHER DISEASES, TOXINS Tagged: , ,
January 23, 2014

Birth Practices and Breastfeeding Practices

Birth Practices and BreastfeedingI interviewed Jennifer Margulis, author of “The Business of Baby:  What Doctors Don’t Tell You, What Corporations Try to Sell You, and How to Put Your Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Before Their Bottom Line”.

In this webinar, you’ll discover how many common pregnancy practices, birth practices and infant care practices are driven, many times without safety studies, to keep you and your baby as a profit center.  Sign up below for the webinar replay:

Sign up to find out about:

  • The link between ultrasounds and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism
  • Why the maternal death rate doubled in the U.S. between 1990 and 2008
  • Why the C-section rate is so high now and how you’re more likely to have one if you have good medical insurance and at a for-profit hospital
  • Fetal induction and its role in emergency Cesarean sections
  • The link between C-sections and autism, allergies and asthma
  • The link between early cord clamping, anemia and neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD
  • How birth practices and breastfeeding practices can be linked to children’s chronic illnesses and neurodevelopmental disorders

When I was on the way to becoming a new parent, I was like most people out there, who assume that doctors and the healthcare system are looking out for us and have our best interests at heart.

Jennifer (Dr. Margulis, PhD) shows us how this just isn’t so. She shows us how pharmaceutical companies and medical-insurance companies are not only shaping for the worse what our healthcare choices are but also how there is a revolving door between them and federal government that drives federal healthcare policy.

You and I are looked at as long-term profit centers by the healthcare industry. Food and prevention don’t make a lot of profit, so they’re ignored. I love Jennifer’s quote, “You won’t see a farmer going to a doctor’s office with free kale in the hopes of getting pregnant patients hooked”.

Filed Under: ACID REFLUX (GERD), ADHD, ALLERGIES, ASTHMA, AUTISM / PDD-NOS, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, BIRTH TRAUMA, DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS, DIGESTIVE ISSUES, ECZEMA, GENERAL, HEALTH TOPICS, HEALTHY BABY, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS, PRENATAL HEALTH, SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER
December 4, 2013

Gluten Free Hype?

Gluten Free Hype?A lot of people are going gluten-free these days – is gluten free hype or a real and growing trend?

I would argue that it’s a real and growing trend, and it’s not just because the number of patients diagnosed with celiac disease is growing.

Gluten Isn’t What It Used to Be

A whole host of publications have come out recently that argue against gluten in the diet (“Grain Brain“, “Wheat Belly” and “The Dark Side of Wheat“), mainly because the gluten we eat today, which comes mainly in the form of wheat, is not the same as what our grandparents ate.

Wheat has been hybridized and genetically manipulated to the extent that our bodies recognize it as foreign and unfriendly.

In fact, recently there was an online “Gluten Summit“, in which celiac researchers, functional-medicine doctors and holistic nutritionists collectively agreed that gluten should be removed from our most, if not all, of our diets.

Effects of Gluten on Our Bodies

As more and more people discover that their allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders are exacerbated by food allergies and intolerances, these people discover that removing allergenic foods, such as gluten, from their diets makes them feel better.

Removing gluten from your diet can relieve you from a lot of symptoms that you might typically take an over-the-counter medication for such as bloating, headaches, constipation, diarrhea, inability to focus, fatigue and joint pain.

The best way to know if gluten is affecting you is to be a food detective.  Eliminate all forms of it (wheat, rye, barley, soy sauce, non-gluten-free oats and more) from your diet for at least a week, then add it back in.  Beware of hidden sources of gluten, such as those found in salad dressings, soups, puddings, processed meats and ice cream.

Keep a food journal and keep an eye out for any unusual symptoms, such as the ones I described above.  They might not just be a coincidence, and they might take 2 or 3 days to reappear, so be patient.

Working Gluten-Free Foods into Your Diet

I don’t recommend that you replace all of your gluten-filled foods with their gluten-free counterparts.  Doing so will get you a lot of gluten-free junk food.  Typically, these pancakes, cookies, waffles, breads, etc. are loaded with corn and potato starch as dough softeners, and adding more of these high-glycemic starches to your diet can adversely affect your blood sugar.

Instead, I recommend adding in gluten-free whole foods into your diet:  brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, quinoa, non-GMO corn and potatoes are great starting points.  If you’re baking, my favorite grain-based gluten-free flour is sorghum, or you could try non-grain flours made from coconuts or nuts.

Here are some easy gluten-free recipes for you try out this holiday season:

 

 

Filed Under: ALLERGIES, ASTHMA, AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS, CELIAC DISEASE, DIGESTIVE ISSUES, FOOD AND NUTRITION, FOOD CHOICES, HEALTH TOPICS Tagged: ,
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