Demaaaaaand Airbags!

My best friend in Acupuncture school used to do impressions.  One of his very best was of his Driver’s Ed teacher back in high school, who used to urge his students, “Demaaaaaand Airbags!” 

Remember cars before airbags?  Me neither.  I thought about this recently when I was pondering the issue of gluten in restaurants. 

When I returned from India to the west in 1995, I was a vegetarian.  Whenever I went to a restaurant, I wouldn’t even look at the menu.  When the waiter arrived to take my order, I’d simply say, “I’ll have the vegetable plate.”  And when the waiter looked at me quizzically, I’d explain (more or less patiently) that I was a vegetarian; I wouldn’t be eating any meat; and if they didn’t have a menu item specifically called “The Vegetable Plate,” then maybe the chef could put something together with whatever vegetables they had going on in the kitchen, and that would be okay with me. 

Well, I’m no longer a vegetarian, but I am gluten-free.  I rarely eat at restaurants because gluten-free is often more trouble than it’s worth in my opinion.  However, there are a few restaurants I’ve found where I can order something gluten-free, and I usually stick to those solitary items.  What can I say?  It’s challenging.

Recently, though, I took my son to an Italian restaurant.  We used to frequent this restaurant, he and I, back in the day before either of us had our respective run-ins with gluten.  As we were being seated, I wondered what in the world I would order, but was pleasantly surprised to find that this restaurant had recently added gluten-free pasta to the menu!  Wow, I thought. 

But then it dawned on me:  restaurants can offer gluten-free ANYTHING, and it’s not that hard.  If I can find it in every grocery store, then they can jolly well order it from Sysco, or wherever they order their food.  All I have to do is ask for it.  Supply and demand, right?

And then I flashed back to my friend and his impression of his Driver’s Ed teacher.  All we have to do is what I did when I was a vegetarian, and just asked for the vegetable plate!

And we should ALL do this.  Think about it:  What if we collectively and individually went to lunch tomorrow and each one of us marched into ANY restaurant and order the turkey sub on gluten-free bread, or the gyro on gluten-free pita, or a slice of pepperoni and mushroom on gluten-free crust?  And when the person taking our order looked at us blankly, we returned the blank stare with a hit of incredulity, and said, “What, you don’t have gluten-free options?” (like they had just told us they didn’t have a bathroom or napkins or oxygen or something).  And when they said no, we harrumphed and said, “Well, (whatever their competitor is) has it!” and walked out.  And if ALL of us did this at every restaurant, things would start changing.  And we would start a movement:  the gluten-free movement.  Except of course that has already started, but it definitely would get things moving forward a lot faster!

The Skinny on Fat

How awesome is fat? 

Fat is so great.  Your whole body needs fat.  Your brain needs fat, your nervous system needs fat, your skin needs fat, and your hair needs fat.

How do we get fat into our body?  From our digestive system.  When we eat any food that happens to have fat in it, sensors in our mouth send a signal to the brain saying, “Here comes some fat!  You’d better inform the Gall Bladder.”  The brain quickly text messages the Gall Bladder, the organ that holds Bile, the magic soap for fat.  Once the Gall Bladder gets the text, it mobilizes all its resources and squirts bile into the digestive system.  As the partly-digested food passes from the Stomach down to the Small Intestine, the Gall Bladder’s bile begins the process of breaking down the fats into digestible, absorbable pieces.

Now here’s where things can get interesting.  If the body has a good relationship with fats, and the Gall Bladder is producing the right amount of bile, the food is further broken down in the Small Intestine and absorbed into the body.  Then the fats can break down vitamins (like Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E), moisturize the skin, protect the nervous system, and feed the brain.  On the other hand, if the body has a less-than-optimal relationship with fats, then the Small Intestine goes, “Ugh!  What am I going to do with this mess?  Get rid of it!”  And it sends the fats that it cannot metabolize to the colon (and your poop floats in the toilet), and to the blood (who may choose to wallpaper with the particularly sticky bits of fat, thereby building up what we refer to as hardening of the arteries).  Then your doctor informs you that you have high cholesterol…which ironically means that your body is starved for fats that it cannot absorb.

While we’re on the subject, let’s talk about cholesterol.  Cholesterol is actually a very important nutrient in the body.  Cholesterol is the mother of all steroid hormones, from which sex hormones and Cortisol are made.  So this means that if you can’t metabolize fats, you couldn’t make a hormone if someone paid you.  So if you suddenly adopt a non-fat diet, don’t expect good sleep or a healthy sex drive.

How do you know if you have problems metabolizing fat?  All you have to do is look at the parts of the body that are dependent on fats. 

Let’s start with your skin.  Is your skin dry, no matter how much lotion you slather on yourself?  Your skin needs plenty of water, and the body’s ability to hydrate, but without fats, no matter how much water you drink, your skin will be dry, rough, and flaky.  When someone’s hormones are unstable because they’re in transition, like in menopause or puberty, you may see more acne because of the sex hormone’s effects on the skin.  An inability to metabolize fats just makes this condition worse because the sebaceous glands can’t regulate the oils properly.

The nervous system is another important aspect of the body affected by our relationship to fats.  If we have a good relationship with fats, our body will insulate and protect the nervous system with fats.  Then we will be mostly calm, cool, and collected…rather than jumpy, hyperactive, and overstimulated.  Our good relationship with fats will provide us with deep restful sleep because our fight-or-flight nervous system will allow our rest-heal-digest nervous system to be in control during our sleep time.

If we have a good relationship with fats, our brain will work smoothly and successfully.  There will be an effortless orchestration of our hormones and neurotransmitters.  We won’t walk into a room and say, “What was I going to do?”,  or lose our train of thought, or forget what we were going to say.  Our senses will be sharp; our thinking will be clear.

Developmentally, our relationship with fats is crucial during early childhood, when we are growing exponentially; during puberty, when our hormones kick in; and later in life, when our endocrine system is challenged by changing hormone levels—not just menopause, and not just for women, but for all people—because scientists are beginning to take note of other hormonal changes like thyropause and andropause. 

Other signs that you have problems with fat: meats and fatty foods feel “heavy” to you.  Because proteins and fats are inextricably linked in our food supply, our bodies need them to provide both protein and fats.  You may gravitate toward a vegetarian diet because you feel “lighter” when you do not eat meat, or when you eat only chicken or fish.  Although some people can eat a low-fat diet for a while, be wary of the telltale signs that your body isn’t getting the nutrition it needs.  If a vegetarian or vegan diet isn’t working for you, your lips and tongue become pale, and your hair becomes dry and thin.

And you may crave sugar!  Here’s the reason. Your brain can use three things:  water, amino acids and fats, and sugar in the form of blood glucose.  Glucose is the easiest, quickest source of energy; like water, glucose is absorbed instantly when it hits the stomach.  So when the brain sends us a signal that it needs energy, it’s just an impulse.  We won’t necessarily slow it down and think about it.  The brain says, “I need energy!”  And we NEVER interpret this to mean, “I need water!” or “I need some amino acids!” Rather, what we hear is, “I need chocolate!” or “I need some sugar!”

The problem with sugar cravings, of course, is that they tend to make us eat more sugar.  Which will put a strain on our pancreas and liver, and make our blood sugar do loop-de-loops all day long.  Eating sugar makes our blood sugar soar…and then drop like a rock…and then we crave sugar again.  All day long.  But that’s another story.

So take a good look at your diet.  Are you giving your body the nutrients it needs?  One of the easiest ways to balance out a lack of fat in your diet is to supplement with fish oil.  Consider DHA or Omega 3 fatty acids, readily available at your local health food store.  These supplements are safe and easy to take, even for children.  Nordic Naturals makes a great DHA Jr. formula, delivered in a strawberry-flavored caplet that even my picky kids will take.  Another great one is Omega 3-6-9 Emulsion by Biogenesis.  That one tastes like lemon custard!  Sometimes easing into dietary changes by supplementing with botanicals and nutraceuticals first can help you make the changes you need to deliver the right nutrients to your body. 

Most people can successfully supplement with Omega 3 or fish oil. If you supplement with Omegas or fish oil and you have problems, digestive or otherwise, consider consulting a health professional who can assist you with your absorption. 

When A Cold Is Not A Cold

Recently a friend of mine told me that her daughter had been sick with a cold for two months.
“That's not a cold,” I told her. “It's an allergy.”
“Ridiculous!” my friend responded. “She doesn't have allergies.”
“If it was a cold,” I went on, “it would have been over and done with in a week, max.”
“Is that why she's not responding to the antibiotics?” my friend asked.

Here's two important facts you need to know about colds:
If it's a cold, it is caused by a virus, not a bacteria. Therefore, antibiotics will be useless.
Colds only last about a week. If it lasts longer, it's not a cold.
So how do you tell if it's a cold or an allergy?
First of all, if you have nasal stuffiness, sneezing, or runny nose for longer than a week, start to look at patterns. Do you notice it at a certain time of day? Do you notice that you get a runny nose after eating a particular thing? Is it possible that this happened the last time you ate it?
I had a friend several years ago whose daughter's nose would run every morning after breakfast. She called it “The Breakfast Cold.” Basically, the child was reacting to the food she ate every morning.
Secondly, does your runny nose or sneezing happen at a certain time of year? Do you have what seems to be a month-long cold every March? If so, chances are it's allergies and not a cold. Environmental allergies often mimic colds in their symptoms. The only difference is the duration.
Third, do not underestimate the effect of emotions. If you find yourself in the midst of a month-long cold after the death of a loved one, it's probably your body trying to work out the grief you still feel.
And emotions can be tricky, too! I was treating a patient once for his mold allergies. “My mold allergy is always the strongest in the fall,” he told me. Interesting, I thought; in California, the fall is the dryest time of year, and mold is usually at an all-time low in the fall. I tested him, and found that he wasn't allergic to mold at all. So when I tested again to find out what it was that was triggering his allergy each fall, it turned out to be an emotion...and, long story short, it was in the fall that his father had died several years earlier. After clearing the emotion, his autumn allergy disappeared.

www.quantumlinkwellness.com

Winter: The Season of the Dreaded Cough

I'll never forget the feeling...being awakened at 11:30 pm, soon after falling asleep, by the sound of my son's cough in his room next to ours...that feeling of dread and fear because my son can't breathe.
Every mother of an asthmatic child knows exactly what I'm talking about. There's a certain sound that every child makes when they cough, when you know they're in trouble. For my son, it was when the cough (which had begun 36 hours previously) had pretty much exhausted his lungs. His voice shrank to a whisper. He began to wheeze. And the cough shook his small frame, sending spasms throughout his entire body, sometimes causing him to gag at the end. I knew there was no medicine that would get us through the night, no matter what the doctor said, and that it would be a long, scary night indeed.
Fortunately for us, I learned from our nutritionist that my son had food allergies that were creating copious amounts of phlegm in his small system. When we eat food that is undigestible—either because we're allergic to that food and it creates inflammation in our gut or because we're sensitive to that food and can't absorb it—the residue of the undigested food produces excess mucus. When we reach a certain critical mass, so to speak, of mucus that our body can't store any longer, the mucus is released as phlegm, usually through the nose, in a form that looks, for all intents and purposes, like a cold. This is what our nutritionist explained to us. Hmm, I thought, that sounds suspiciously like Chinese Medicine, which I myself had studied before having children. And, come to think of it, my son seemed like he was getting an awful lot of colds—sometimes he got a cold every two or three weeks! But, I realized, no one else in the family was getting these “colds,” which made me wonder. Maybe the nutritionist was right.
So we followed the nutritionist's advice: No eggs. No wheat. No cow's milk dairy of any sort, including butter. No soy. And much less sugar. It was a miracle—my son got dramatically better in a very short period of time. I was amazed.
Now, for those of you who have never attempted an egg-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, soy-free diet, let me share with you how incredibly difficult this is to do, especially with children, and especially with someone who is a very picky eater to begin with, like my son is. Basically, you can't go out to eat. Every kid's meal known to mankind is replete with wheat and dairy, not to mention things no parent really wants to know about. Basically, on an egg-free, wheat-free, dairy-free diet, you eat meat, chicken, or fish, and vegetables, which if you're interested in losing weight is a really great diet to follow but unfortunately my son, aged 5 at the time, was already too skinny. And basically, we spent a lot of time at the kitchen table amidst plates of (you guessed it) protein and vegetables, while my son cried and said, “Mom, when can I get off this boring diet?” Breaks a mom's heart.
What kind of a life is this, I ask you? Doomed, at age 5, to eat only meat and vegetables! Ask any parent whose child has had to follow this diet, and they will tell you it is very difficult, but better than pulmicort and albuterol, the asthma medicine du jour. And I seconded that every time we fell off the wagon after a bithday-party soaked weekend, or a visit to the grandparents, or when I gave in because I just couldn't listen to the whining anymore, and the dreaded cough came back. Yes, I sighed, life is a sick joke.
But then we discovered NAET, the greatest allergy elimination therapy known to man, the holy grail of alternative medicine. NAET is a combination of Chinese medicine, applied kinesiology (muscle testing), and chiropractic spinal massage. It actually change your relationship with any substance you might be reacting to. I treated my son for eggs, and the cough went away. Really—I'm not kidding. It resurfaced twice in two years—once after he ate salmon, and once after he ate rice pasta—but after treating him for those two things, he basically doesn't cough anymore. The dreaded cough is gone!!

www.quantumlinkwellness.com

The Allergic Continuum

When most people think of allergies, they think of the classic definition, the hypersensitivity reaction. This type of allergy is the kind that shows up in a blood or scratch test at your local MD allergist's office. The blood test or scratch test reveals the presence of IgE, and in some cases, IgG in the body, and determines, in hard scientific fact, that you do indeed have an allergy.
However, this is a very narrow definition of allergies. In fact, hypersensitivity reactions of this sort are only one of five types, the rest referring to autoimmune disorders. Furthermore, the classic and narrow definition of allergies as hypersensitivity reactions don't always answer our questions as to why things make us sick. I'm sure you know people who have had reactions that look like “allergies,” and yet when they go to the allergist and get tested, the results are negative. Or the results are very specific and don't account for all their symptoms. For example, the test may show an allergy to milk and cats, but nothing else. Yet when they eat nightshade vegetables they get bloated and have indigestion. According to the test they are not allergic to potatoes, peppers, or tomatoes.
What's going on here?
The hypersensitivity definition of allergies, as I said before, is a very narrow definition of an allergy. There is a continuum of allergies. On the “weak” end, we have sensitivities: things we are sensitive to, that cause symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, indigestion, gas, body aches, and diarrhea. Since this is not a hypersensitivity reaction, there are no antibodies to the substance, although inflammation, heat, or other symptoms may occur. In the middle of the spectrum are intolerances, things we naturally avoid because they make us feel uncomfortable enough that we have identified them as an inhospitable guest in our system. Intolerances include things that make us sick: seafood that causes vomiting; grass that causes itching; milk that causes painful bloating and constipation. On the “severe” end of the spectrum we find allergies in the classic definition: things to which our body has produced antibodies after our first exposure, and which produce in us moderately serious reactions (swelling, hives, itching, etc). And at the end of the “severe” end is anaphylaxis. Exposure to these items, which our body has identified as severely dangerous, can produce life-threatening reactions or death. These are your peanut, milk, egg, and wheat anaphylaxes.
Just because your MD doctor has tested you by scratch or blood test and has found that you have a specific number of “allergies,” don't assume that's the end of the story. Pay attention to how you feel—after a big meal, after eating sweets, after consuming alcoholic beverages, after exposure to chemicals. Notice when you feel a certain way after being exposed to something...and notice when these reactions happen REPEATEDLY. Does that morning smoothie leave you feeling exhausted and lightheaded? Do you get really bloated after that afternoon Diet Coke...and then absolutely have to have another one? Do your eyes tear incessantly after taking the Tylenol you popped in order to take care of that headache you got after cleaning your bathtub with Comet? Being in tune with your body and what it can—and can't—handle can help keep you in control of your own life.

http://www.quantumlinkwellness.com