Liver health – give yourself a fighting chance!

By Roberta Benson

Our health depends on our body’s ability to cope with all we encounter: substances taken in through air, mouth, and skin; mental and physical experiences; and the substances produced by every biological process of our bodies. The main detoxifying organ we have is the liver. It does an invaluable service in filtering blood and breaking down and then packaging toxins for safe removal. To give ourselves a fighting chance against the rampant toxicity of modern life, we need to cleanse and nurture this wonderful organ.

Stresses on the liver 

In the last 150 years, human-made chemicals used in modern lifestyles have increased exponentially. Pesticides, industrial compounds, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, particulates, and ever-present plastics are toxins our ancestors did not have to contend with.

Our modern diet also generates a load on our body. We rely heavily on processed foods that have much of the nutritive value stripped out and additives that extend shelf life slipped in. Agricultural practices deplete the soil and add petrochemical pollution. Our hectic lifestyle depends on crutches such as caffeine, alcohol, poor quality fats, and sugar to make it through the day. Meanwhile, our basic physiology has scarcely changed from Paleolithic times. Our environment has changed radically but our biology has not. We are not equipped to handle the onslaught of chemicals we are exposed to. This poses a real problem for our health.

Built-in capacity to detox

Our bodies do have a built-in capacity for detoxification. With every breath, we exhale carbon dioxide. Sweating removes heat from our body and also rids us of BPA (Bisphenol A, a plastic derivative) and heavy metals. The liver, kidneys, and lymph system work at filtering and cleaning our body fluids. All these biological processes operate to promote and maintain efficient cellular and organ functioning. Yet in today’s world we accumulate more waste than our daily detox mechanisms can process. It’s a no-brainer that we need to support our detoxification pathways.

Of all the organs of detoxification, the liver, the hardest working organ of our body,  deserves to be singled out. Not only is it responsible for over 200 different metabolic processes, it also filters roughly 2 quarts of blood per minute! Harmful substances are filtered out and, in an intricate process, the liver deactivates these wastes and re-packages them for safe removal from the body.

Liver’s self-detoxification

The liver detoxifies in two phases.

• In Phase 1, the liver is able to break substances down with enzymes into forms the body can remove immediately. No further processing is necessary. Coffee is one example of a substance detoxified in Phase 1. Other substances however, are broken down into intermediate compounds that are even more dangerous to the body than the original substance was. These compounds require further processing to be detoxified.

• In Phase 2, the intermediate substances are broken down further, and then bound with proteins or other water-soluble molecules. These can then be safely excreted from the body. Acetaminophen (Tylenol), xenoestrogens (estrogen mimickers), and glyphosate (the byproduct of Round Up) are a few of the many toxic substances that require the two-step process.

Detoxification works best when the body isn’t engaged in other biological processes, in particular, digestion. Both bodily functions occur best when our system is in its “rest and repair” (parasympathetic) state. The body, however, prioritizes digestion over detoxification. Undigested food rots and ferments in the gastrointestinal tract, causing inflammation. This spells trouble down the road. Because of this, much of our liver’s detox work occurs when we give our digestive system a rest whether at night or during an elimination diet, which is one component of a liver cleanse, as we shall see.

Elements of a good liver cleanse

So, what is the anatomy of a good liver cleanse? In general, there are a few crucial elements.

1. An elimination diet. Removing major allergens and hard-to-digest foods relieves the liver from many of its other functions, freeing it up to purge. Corn, gluten, eggs, meat, sugar, processed foods, coffee, and alcohol are some examples of foods that can be eliminated. An initial, short (1 day) liquid-only fast can be helpful in clearing the colon.

2. Improving circulation and enhancing elimination. All elimination pathways need to be open and flowing. Optimal hydration, manual therapies such as dry skin brushing, saunas, and massage, are techniques that are helpful to enhance blood flow and lymph flow. Toxins released from tissues, but not removed from the body, however, will ultimately be re-absorbed and could also cause side effects like nausea or headache.

3. The liver needs some supplementation. As mentioned above, Phase I detoxification is enzyme-driven and largely dependent on a plentiful supply of antioxidant nutrients. Whole complex E, C, the carotenoids, selenium, glutathione/NAC are some of the important substances for this phase of detoxification. Antioxidants and vitamins, however, are team players. They do not function well as isolated components of a complex. The Red Clover Clinic article on whole food concentrates vs. synthetic supplements. Understanding supplements: synthetic vitamins vs. whole food concentrates, explains this concept.

4. The liver needs to be optimally fed. Phase 2 detoxification requires several different substances to accomplish detoxification. Amino acids (proteins molecules) are one, making good, clean proteins critical in the diet. (This is one of the reasons why fasting and drinking only water are counter-productive for liver detoxification. During such fasts, the liver is starved of the nutrients it needs to do its work! Another substance required by some Phase 2 detoxification pathways are sulphur-bearing molecules. Here, consuming vegetables from the allium family is helpful because of their high sulphur content. These include onions, shallots, and garlic. Yet other pathways depend on nutrients found in the cruciferous family: broccoli, cabbage and kale are examples.

5. Specific herbal and food support for the liver. There are also foods and herbs that nurture the liver and its companion, the gall badder. Milk thistle, of which silymarin is the active constituent, is very protective and regenerative for the liver. Beets help thin bile, which in turn carries toxins out of the body via the intestines. Dandelion, yellow dock and burdock root are herbs used to promote liver health.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of nutrients necessary for liver health, nor is it meant to be a recipe for a cleanse. Instead this article is intended to supply a basic understanding of how our liver functions to protect our bodies from toxin load. Your nutrition specialist can help you design a detoxification program tailored to you and your needs.

Roberta is certified through the Nutritional Therapy Association and is currently studying Nutrition Response Testing and Morphogenic Field Technique. Currently she is practicing as a massage therapist at Red Clover Clinic, and is hoping to begin offering nutrition sessions to our clients soon.

Are you moving functionally?

In my last article, Getting to the Root of Pain and Illness, I introduced Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) as an option for treating musculoskeletal pain. I would like to focus a little more attention to this method, so that my clients can develop a deeper understanding of how their bodies work and how we can use NKT to increase function and decrease pain.

Do you have a pain that is always there no matter how much you use a foam roller or seek out other therapies? Do you get temporary relief, but the pain always returns? If you have pain that is a result of damage to your body, NKT may not be able to offer much relief. However, if you have a chronically tight muscle that feels like a toothache, a chronic muscle weakness that prevents you from moving normally, or any annoying aches and pains, NKT may be just the thing for you.

In NKT, we assess movement patterns. We consider where the person has pain, what the tissue feels like, and what muscles may be involved. We do a series of muscle tests to determine which muscles are facilitated (testing strong) and which are inhibited (testing weak). It is important to note that facilitated could mean that the muscle is functioning normally, or that it is too tight and is the prime mover in a compensation pattern. On the flip side, if a muscle tests inhibited, it doesn’t mean that it is inherently weak; it may just be switched off by a facilitated muscle. The layers of compensation can get very complicated, but the magic of NKT is that layer by layer, we can reestablish healthy, functional movement patterns.

The bottom line is that when your body uses dysfunctional movement patterns to move, pain develops. When your body uses functional movement patterns to move, pain goes away.

How do dysfunctional movement patterns develop, and how do we fix them? 

All movement patterns are stored in the brain, specifically in the motor control center that is part of the cerebellum. The motor control center is directed by the cerebrum and the limbic system to create movement patterns. The cerebrum controls all voluntary actions of the body and the limbic system is the emotional center of the brain, which creates an interesting link between strong emotions, stress, shock and trauma, and movement patterns. When you’re under stress, do you hold your breath or clench your jaw? This could be the start of a dysfunctional movement pattern. Due to the plasticity of the brain, dysfunctional movement patterns are as easy to create as functional movement patterns.

When the body is injured or stressed, whether physically or emotionally, healthy movement may become difficult. Without us even noticing, the brain recruits other muscles to do the work of whichever muscle is injured or fatigued. After the compensation pattern is repeated, it becomes ingrained in the motor control center. This is how dysfunctional movement patterns are established.

For example, if you are doing bicep curls, and you decide to use a heavier weight and do more reps than you usually do, your biceps will fatigue and weaken. If you continue to work through the muscle fatigue, your brain will begin to recruit other muscles of the shoulder and forearm to make the movement happen, without much help from the biceps. If you continue to do this, your biceps will become inhibited and won’t fire properly during normal use and you will most likely develop pain somewhere in your body, due to the compensation pattern that was created.

In this example, we can see that the motor control center learns through failure. If the bicep is weakened, the body learns how to recruit other muscles to achieve the desired end result.

In NKT we use this concept to our advantage. We do manual muscle tests that isolate the function of the muscles being tested. If the muscle test is failed, i.e. the muscle is inhibited and doesn’t fire, the motor control center becomes open to learning a new pattern or to reestablishing a functional pattern. This is our window to find the dysfunctional movement pattern, release it, and assign a specific exercise to burn the functional movement pattern into the brain. Often the exercise is just a repeat of the muscle test without the resistance. In the bicep example above, the bicep curl could be repeated without weight or with very light weight, simply to fire the bicep.  

Next time you are in the clinic, ask if NKT may be the best approach to help with your chronic aches and pains.

Getting to the root of pain and illness

Over the past several years, I have studied many different treatment methods. I’ve learned quite a few that are effective at stopping a symptom. I have found, however, that often symptoms return if the root cause wasn’t addressed. The methods that I stick with are those that focus on getting to the cause of pain and illness.

The body speaks!

What makes a treatment method able to get to the root of a problem? It requires a way to talk to the body and allow the practitioner to be led to the root cause so she or he can determine the best treatment method.

In spite of the fact that we all have arms, legs, livers, and brains, each body requires different strategies to heal. The trick is trying to find out exactly what YOUR body needs to heal its back pain, digestive troubles, headaches. When the body gets exactly what it needs, it is able to heal itself.

The two methods that I have incorporated into my practice to ask the body what it needs to heal are the pulse testing method called the VAS (vascular autonomic signal) and muscle testing. Both methods allow the practitioner to gather information about the body and figure out exactly how to treat it. 

Vascular autonomic signal

VAS is the voice of the body I listen to primarily when practicing auricular medicine. I have different protocols on how to scan the ear to search out specific kinds of information, indicating things like pain, dental issues, emotional blockages, and other conditions. What I’m looking for are changes in the pulse. When the pulse gets noticeably sharper, it indicates a relationship with what I’m searching for. When treating with a needle or laser, I can be very precise with the location of the treatment. This kind of precision is very important, as even a tenth of a millimeter makes a difference.

Muscle testing

Muscle testing is another great method to converse with the body. I have been using it to evaluate the body nutritionally by doing Nutrition Response Testing and Morphogenic Field Technique for the past three years.

Muscle testing works because our body is made up of energy. Our nervous system is our electrical system, which pushes energy through our muscles. If you are exposed to something that impacts your nervous system negatively, your muscles will short circuit and go weak temporarily. This is how we can test foods, which have their own energy fields, and other substances that can act as poisons to the body. We can put light pressure over an organ or other area of the body that may have impaired function, which also causes weakness in the muscle test.

Once we have determined what the problems are, we can do muscle testing to find the solutions. For example, if the body is stressed from a chemical exposure, we can find a supplement that will help the body detoxify it. If a food sensitivity shows up, we can recommend avoidance of that food as well as a digestive enzyme to help clean up the debris left behind by the immune reaction to the food.

Something new-Neurokinetic Therapy

I recently attended a training session for a method called Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT). NKT uses muscle testing to assess dysfunctional movement patterns and pinpoint the root cause of these patterns in the brain’s motor control center. This therapy is very useful to identify which movement pattern is causing pain, weakness, and postural distortion, and determine how to release it and reprogram the motor control center to restore normal function. The reprogramming happens through a few minutes of simple exercises daily.

I’m excited to be adding a therapy that helps me precisely assess the musculoskeletal system in order to determine the most effective treatment and rehabilitative exercises to resolve a problem. This method pairs well with both bodywork and acupuncture, and I am confident that it will incorporate seamlessly into my practice.

As I’ve studied each of these methods, I’ve been tickled by how much overlap there is among them. They’re all tuned to factors that disrupt the body’s normal energy patterns, be they repetitive stress, sugar or other toxins, or scars. And they’re all able to listen to the body and figure out what it needs to heal, be it nutrition, herbal therapy, homeopathy, acupuncture, and/or rehabilitative exercises. It’s like learning different dialects of the same language-the body’s language.

Healthy skin is like a healthy garden

By Rhea Dykoski, L.Ac, Dipl.O.M.

Keeping skin healthy is a lot like keeping garden soil healthy. I came to this conclusion as a result of two experiences: working on an organic farm and learning how to heal my own inflammatory skin condition with herbs, nutrition, and acupuncture.

The most important part of a healthy garden is healthy soil. The main things that distinguish unhealthy soil from healthy or fertile soil are the presence of thriving microbiota and humus. In healthy soil, fungi and bacteria (microbiota) create humus, the structure that retains moisture and stores nutrients. The microbiota also digest stones, making their minerals available for plants. Microbiota are sensitive and easily damaged. Conventional farming techniques apply harsh chemicals to the soil, killing the microbiota. When the microbiota die, humus is no longer created. Without humus, the soil dries out and minerals wash away, leading to further dependence on chemicals.

The microbiota of the soil are just like the microbiota in your digestive system. The digestive microbiota break down food, provide access to vitamins and minerals, and protect the surface of your intestines. When digestive microbiota are damaged, whether from processed foods, food sensitivities, antibiotics, alcohol, stress, sleep deprivation, or other factors, needed nutrients will not be available and the digestive tract will become damaged by undigested food.

A damaged digestive system can lead to many illnesses, including illnesses of the skin. Inflamed intestines and stomach become hyperactive first and sluggish later. In Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, when the digestive system is sluggish it is common for dampness to accumulate in the body. For people with eczema, dampness is accumulating in the skin.

What is eczema?

The long-term effects of eczema, a delayed allergic reaction causing red, itchy, flaky skin patches, are similar to having a patch of infertile soil. ​​​​​​​The names eczema and dermatitis are used interchangeably, but technically eczema is a type of dermatitis. Traditional Chinese Medicine calls eczema shi zhen (damp eruption), since it is weeping and is often a result of congested fluids accumulating in the body.

Eczema-affected skin may be moderately to very itchy. Eczema is most commonly located in damp or oily parts of the body, such as the inner elbow and scalp. An eczema patch weeps fluid, whereas healthy skin retains or sweats fluid as needed. Inflamed tissues require more of the body’s energy than healthy tissues and produce more waste materials.

New flare ups of eczema are often very red and itchy with papules (red bumps) that can crack open and weep fluid. Chronic inflammation and weeping depletes the tissues, which over time become dryer and take on a dull red color with thicker crusted skin. In the long term, eczema is a major drain on the entire body, leading to premature aging.

How herbal medicine and acupuncture can help eczema

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are three main types of eczema:

• The Spleen Damp type

• The Heart Fire type

• Liver Wind type

The appearance of your eczema patches and your general health symptoms will give clues to the type of eczema you have and this diagnosis will guide the treatment plan. For example, if someone has a history of chronic stress, prolonged anger, oily skin, or a red tongue tip, I would consider the Heart Fire type first. If someone has puffy or thin skin, has digestive complaints, or is frequently fatigued, I would think of Spleen Dampness first.

Since eczema is a condition that can be caused by many underlying factors, during an initial consultation, we discuss all of your health symptoms, even ones that seem unrelated. We also discuss the health of your family to look for inherited weaknesses and discuss your current diet as well as your childhood diet.

Acupuncture can help eczema by promoting healthy circulation of blood and fluids, reducing inflammation, and strengthening the immune system.

However, acupuncture cannot add missing nutrients or microflora. This is why herbal medicine and nutritional therapy are often needed for healing skin conditions. Herbal medicine can add nutrients to the body and influence the blood and body fluids more directly than acupuncture. Herbal medicine is typically used for 2–4 months to sustain the effect while your body heals.

Dietary changes can also heal the skin. It usually takes much longer to see a change in your skin from dietary changes, but this is the most important technique for long-term strengthening of your skin and digestive system.

The most effective method for healing eczema is a combination of long-term dietary changes, herbal medicine to guide the healing process, and acupuncture to open energetic blockages.

For more information

Xu, Yihou, Dermatology in Traditional Chinese Medicine (2004).

Fukuoka, Masanobu. Sowing Seeds in the Desert (2012).

Jeavons, John. How to Grow More Vegetables: Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine (1995, 5th ed.).

Author’s Note

I’m very happy to have recently joined the Red Clover Clinic. While writing this article, I thought of how great “red clover” is as a name for a healing center, since red clover is an excellent herb for healing the soil and for healing the skin, including eczema. It is an herb which cools inflamed skin, remove toxins, and is rich in vitamins and minerals.

Understanding supplements: synthetic vitamins vs. whole food concentrates

To achieve optimal health, my nutrition practice recommends a good organic diet with supplementation from whole food concentrates, herbs, and homeopathic remedies. I am often asked to muscle-test the various vitamins that people are taking to see if the body likes them. Whether inexpensive vitamins from Target or very expensive ones from the local coop, these vitamins are synthetic. In almost every instance, synthetic vitamins don’t test well. They actually stress the body over time.

What’s the difference between synthetic vitamins and whole food concentrates?

Vitamin complexes were first identified in food in the early part of the 20th century. As the science of vitaminology developed, scientists identified, then isolated, what they thought was the active component in each vitamin complex. They then concentrated the individual component into a high potency pill. If some is good, more is better…right?

Nutrient isolates are produced in the same manner as pharmaceutical drugs. Furthermore, since the middle of the 20th century, these vitamins have been produced from chemicals, cheap oils, coal tar, corn starch, and petroleum. 

There is a type of supplement that can be labeled a “whole food supplement” that is better than what is described above, but still isn’t the same as a whole food concentrate. These are vitamins that have been cultured in yeast. To make this type of product, minerals and synthetic vitamins are “fed” to yeast. The yeast are then processed to form the supplement. The idea is that a cultured (pre-digested) product is more bioavailable. These supplements tend to have a lower potency than full synthetic vitamins, which makes them a little closer to what nature intended.

The best supplement choice is whole food concentrates which, as the term implies, are concentrated whole foods. Why are they better than synthetic vitamins? They contain complete vitamin complexes as they are found in nature. They still have all of the cofactors (the individual parts of the complex) that act as catalysts which makes them more absorbable and thus effective. The idea is that if you give the body the basic nutritional building blocks, it will be able to sustain normal function, healthy growth, and tissue repair. Standard Process is one of very few companies that produce a complete line of true whole food supplements. 

How do synthetic vitamins cause harm to the body?

Since synthetic vitamins are isolates, and lack the cofactors that the body needs to absorb them, the body’s stores of these cofactors are depleted. In other words, taking an isolate in a high potency causes relative deficiencies within the vitamin complex. Someone may initially feel improvement by taking a synthetic vitamin, but after awhile, as the cofactors are depleted, they begin to feel worse. In fact, they may begin to experience symptoms of a deficiency of the very same vitamin they are taking. Furthermore, high potency vitamins place stress on the organs of elimination (kidneys, liver, and bowels) just as any drug does. Ultimately, this will cause harm to the body.

How can you tell whether a supplement is synthetic or a whole food concentrate?

The best way to learn about a supplement is to read the label. Look below for a comparison of two labels. On the left you see a standard vitamin C label. It states that the C is in the form of ascorbic acid, which is an isolate, not the whole vitamin complex. You will also notice that each tablet contains 1000 mg of ascorbic acid, which is 1,667% of the recommended daily value. One small orange contains 51 mg of vitamin C. So one tablet of this supplement provides the equivalent of almost 20 oranges. I don’t think Mother Nature intended for someone to eat that many oranges in one sitting!

The whole food concentrate C complex label is very different, and possibly a bit confusing. One serving (3 tablets) provides you with 25% of the recommended daily value. The big actors in this supplement, the source of the vitamin C, are listed on the bottom half of the label. You’ll notice many different foods listed, all high in the C complex. They are in their whole food form, which is easy for the body to recognize and assimilate. More is not always better; it is the form that really counts.

When you can, eat whole foods. When you can’t, eat whole food concentrates. Bottom line: eat food, not chemicals!

How full is your rainbarrel?

I recently gave a talk about German auricular acupuncture at a health fair. Afterwards, a couple of people came up to me saying they could relate to a certain phenomenon that I had described. I’ve written about this topic in my newsletter in the past, but it’s been a couple of years, and I think it warrants being revisited now.

The phenomenon that I described in my talk goes something like this. You’re humming along, relatively healthy, body functioning normally, until a distinct moment when everything falls apart. For example, you bend over to pick a pen off of the floor, your back seizes up, and it hasn’t been the same since. Or you experienced a stressful event like a car accident, then developed fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or an autoimmune condition. I hear stories like this from my clients all the time.

Have you experienced something like this?

This phenomenon is explained by the rain barrel theory. Imagine that we each come into this world with an empty rain barrel, which represents our capacity for healing. It’s like our own personal health insurance. As we go through life and experience stress, illness, injury, toxic exposure, poor diets, and more, our rain barrel starts to fill up. As the contents of the barrel reach the tippy top, all it takes is one more drop for the barrel to begin to overflow. When this happens, we begin to experience a whole host of symptoms, because the body is out of energy to heal and adapt to what life presents us with on a daily basis.

What can you do if your rain barrel is overflowing? 

You have two obvious choices: you can make your barrel bigger, or you can drain it. To make your barrel bigger, you can reduce stress, get plenty of sleep, clean up your diet, exercise, meditate, take more breaks. These are all important tactics to halt the cascade of symptoms and improve and maintain your health, but there is a limit to how big you can make your rain barrel.

There are only two ways that I know of to drain your rain barrel: clearing blockages from the body’s memory bank and identifying, then treating by detoxifying, chronic stressors.

Clearing blockages

Our body and brain retains memories of stresses and traumas that we have experienced throughout our lifetime. Sometimes it’s the big events. Other times it’s insignificant injuries and illnesses that the body becomes consumed by. When a blockage develops, there is little energy left to heal new injuries or illnesses. German auricular acupuncture can identify what and how severe these blockages to healing are. The blockages can be treated with acupuncture needles and low-level laser therapy, which can drain your rain barrel significantly.

Identifying and treating/detoxifying chronic stressors

Over our lifetimes, our bodies are exposed to many stressors, such as toxic substances and foods that are less than nutritious. The most common body stressors include food sensitivities, immune challenges, chemicals, heavy metals, and scars. These exposures can gradually stress and assault an organ, a gland, a joint, or any part of our body.

When someone comes to the clinic with a particular complaint, it is important to identify whether or not their complaint is being caused or exacerbated by a particular stressor. If it is, they won’t heal completely without avoiding exposure, detoxifying, and/or treating that stressor. Using Nutrition Response Testing, the exact source of body stress can be identified and treated. Treatment methods include avoiding certain foods, nutritional supplementation, herbal/homeopathic therapy, as well as low-level laser therapy for the treatment of scars.

By detoxifying the tissues of heavy metals, chemicals and immune debris, and treating scars, your rain barrel can be drained even further.

Imagine the state of health that is possible if you not only adopt the health-supporting methods that increase the size of your rain barrel, but also piece together the puzzle of causative factors and get the appropriate treatment to help you drain your rain barrel!

Keep your blood sugar balanced

The general public has become more aware of the fact that high sugar foods are bad for their health. There still seems to be a disconnect, however, between knowing that sugar is bad for health and understanding that most blood sugar-related diseases, such as type II diabetes and hypoglycemia, occur as a result of a high sugar diet. This means that you can avoid these diseases by getting the sugar out of your diet and managing your blood sugar.

Another aspect of high sugar diets that isn’t part of common awareness is that the first step to managing any kind of hormonal disruption is to manage blood sugar. Yes, those of you suffering from insomnia, mood changes, PMS, hot flashes, night sweats, etc. can benefit greatly by managing your blood sugar!

Below are strategies for managing your blood sugar and some detailed information about how your body processes sugar.

Understanding the physiology of blood sugar regulation

It all starts with the pancreas, which secretes the hormones insulin and glucagon. Insulin is secreted during digestion to move carbohydrates/sugar from the blood into the cells, so that the cells can produce energy. Excess energy is stored as glycogen in the liver for future energy needs. The pancreas secrets glucagon between meals to convert the stored glycogen back into blood sugar so that the cells have a constant fuel supply. Yes, carbohydrates are necessary, but only in managed quantities.

Insulin and glucagon work together to keep the blood sugar levels stable throughout the day. If one’s blood sugar strays too far above or below the set point, the body shifts into a stressed state and engages the adrenals to secrete cortisol and adrenaline. You can imagine that this might show up as anxiety, a rapid heart rate, or a hot flash.

Cortisol is necessary to keep the liver receptive to signals by glucagon to release glucose back into the bloodstream. If someone has lived in a state of constant stress, their adrenals may grow tired and not produce enough cortisol to do their job. This can lead to hypoglycemic crashes not long after a meal. The crashes can manifest as light headedness, nausea, or panic if the person doesn’t quickly consume a glass of juice or eat some crackers.

When someone consumes large quantities of sugar/carbohydrates, the liver can store only so much glycogen before it begins to store the extra carbohydrates as fat. The habit of eating a lot of sugar/carbohydrates leads to weight gain and obesity.

A hormone that counteracts insulin and its propensity for fat storage is human growth hormone. Exercise and fasting trigger the pituitary to release HGH, promoting tissue growth and repair. This is the important link between exercise and blood sugar management. It also contributes to our understanding that a lack of human growth hormone may play a role in wound healing issues in diabetics.

As you can see, when blood sugar management goes awry, other endocrine glands will compensate. For example, as shown in the image below, taken from Life Without Bread, by Wolfgang Lutz and Christian Allan, high blood sugar can cause a relative increase in insulin and a relative decrease in sex hormones and growth hormones. In the second scenario, the relative increase in insulin causes a relative increase in thyroid hormone secretions. Either result is an example of metabolic dysregulation, which leads to unwanted symptoms.

Understanding the numbers

Measuring blood sugar is a simple thing to do with an inexpensive glucose meter, found at a drugstore or on Amazon. You can also learn what your blood sugar level is if you get lab tests done at your doctor’s office.

A good fasting blood sugar in a healthy person is between 75 and 85. After a meal, it shouldn’t exceed 110, and in a very healthy person, it won’t ever get to 100. Insulin and glucagon keep your numbers in a fairly tight range when you are healthy. 140 is considered to be borderline diabetic. In a diabetic person, blood sugar level may go as high as 200, which is a bit scary, as peripheral nerve damage begins when blood sugar exceeds 120. Retinal damage begins to occur when blood sugar exceeds 140.

If you measure your blood sugar at home following a meal, you can begin to see which foods affect you the most and then avoid them. It is an empowering way to take control of your health. When you decrease your intake of carbohydrates/sugar, you will see changes very quickly in your blood sugar numbers, and you will be able to get control of the cascade of symptoms that occur with high blood sugar readings.

What else can you do?

• Avoid hypoglycemia (low blood sugar episodes) by eating something at least every 3-1/2 hours. Remember to bring snacks with you so you don’t get stuck without food.

• Eat complex rather than refined carbohydrates, and eat them in small quantities (e.g. 1/2 cup of brown rice, quinoa, sweet potato, fruit).

• Don’t consume caffeine before eating breakfast. Caffeine seems to decrease insulin sensitivity and increase cortisol release. High cortisol over long periods tends to produce glucose, i.e. raise blood sugar.

• Eat a protein-rich breakfast.

• Oops…eat too many carbs? Go for a brisk walk. This will allow your body to use the excess glucose, rather than secreting insulin to get the glucose into the cells and store it.

• And, finally…avoid sweets as much as possible! The more you follow the above guidelines, the easier it will be to thwart sugar cravings.

Take control of your health!

By making these simple, but crucial, changes to your diet, you will make huge strides in managing your blood sugar. Even type II diabetics can make major changes in their blood sugar by diet alone in a relatively short period of time.

Do you have a leaky gut?

In the May/June issue of the Red Clover Clinic Newsletter, we discussed the microbiome in your gut and how to attend to it. We used the label “dysbiosis” to describe a microbiome that is out of balance, that is, one with an abundance of harmful bacteria not managed by beneficial bacteria. The concept of dysbiosis leads us to the topic of this issue: leaky gut syndrome.

What is leaky gut syndrome?

The lining of your digestive tract is designed to be porous, so that you are able to absorb necessary nutrients into your bloodstream. When the lining becomes irritated and inflamed, the pores expand, allowing larger particles of semi-digested food to leak through the lining. These larger particles can include proteins (e.g. gluten and casein), undigested food particles, bad bacteria, and toxic waste. Ultimately the contents that leak out of the digestive tract and into the bloodstream trigger an immune reaction in the body.

What causes a gut to become leaky?

• Poor diet: sugar (feeds bad bacteria), un-sprouted whole grains (contain anti-nutrients), genetically modified foods (high in anti-nutrients and herbicides/pesticides), and conventional (pasteurized and homogenized) dairy

• Exposure to toxins: medications, herbicides, pesticides

• Dysbiosis: overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut

• Chronic stress: stress hormones trigger an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut

What are the signs of a leaky gut?

As proteins, undigested food particles, bad (disease-causing) bacteria and toxins leak out of the gut and into the bloodstream, they trigger the body’s immune system to react. If you have a leaky gut, you might notice an increase in allergy symptoms, multiple food sensitivities, irritable bowel, fatigue, achy joints, headaches, acne, eczema, rosacea, weight gain, mood imbalance, hormonal imbalance, and/or any autoimmune disease.

It is especially important to note that behind most autoimmune disease, you will find a leaky gut. This means that if you have an autoimmune disease, you must make it a priority to heal your gut first. For more information, you might enjoy reading Amy Myers’ book, The Autoimmune Solution.

How do you repair a leaky gut?

Most experts agree on four basic “R’s” to repair a leaky gut.

1. Remove inflammatory foods and toxins.

2. Replace with healing foods and digestive support (enzymes, hydrochloric acid, bile salts)

3. Repair with supplements, such as bone broth, collagen, L-Glutamine, omega 3 fats, aloe, chlorophyll, licorice root, quercetin and slippery elm.

4. Rebalance/Reinoculate with probiotics, fermented veggies, and raw cultured dairy.

As you can see, the health of your gut plays a role in many, if not most, health conditions. Eating a clean and healthy diet and recognizing the early signs of something gone awry is the best way to avoid developing chronic health problems. If you need help figuring out what is at the root of your health complaints, Nutrition Response Testing is a wonderful tool, and we are here to support you through the healing process.

The invisible universe of the human microbiome

The wild world in your gut

You may have noticed the term “microbiome” being used more often in everyday discourse about health. What exactly does the word mean?  What role does the microbiome play in our health? Let’s take a look…

What is the microbiome?

The microbiome refers to the diverse environment of bacteria living in and on the body. Most often when the term is used, it is referring to bacteria in the gut. There are three to ten times the number of bacteria living in the gut as there are human cells in the body. This may sound a bit disconcerting, but we’re awfully lucky to have these microbial guests. They help us digest and absorb nutrients; they play a huge role in our immune systems (70 to 80 percent of immune tissue is found in the digestive tract); and they help to manage mood (gut bacteria produce 90 percent of our serotonin).

A balanced microbiome equals health

The goal is to have a balanced and diverse microbiome to promote and maintain health. The modern lifestyle tends to throw this balance off, causing an overgrowth of bad bacteria, a condition known as dysbiosis. This imbalance can lead to inflammation in the gut, which eventually turns into leaky gut syndrome. This is the root of many health conditions, including

• bloating and fullness after eating

• food sensitivities

• fatigue

• chronic joint pain

• headaches

• skin conditions

• weight gain

• ADHD

• mood disorders, and

• autoimmune diseases.

In order to maintain health, we need to tend to the health of this ecosystem living inside of each of us. Think of it like tending a garden. If you give it good compost and water, it will flourish. If you pull the weeds, it will make room for the plants that you want to grow. If you use heirloom seeds, you will maintain healthy biodiversity. On the other hand, if you you feed the garden with chemical fertilizers and manage the weeds and pests with herbicides and pesticides, you will grow nutrient-deficient and chemical-laden vegetables.

What damages the microbiome?

• Sugar: Sugar is one of the biggest culprits in damaging healthy diversity in gut flora, especially when eaten in the quantities of the standard American diet. Sugar feeds bad bacteria, yeasts, and parasites that can cause ill health.

• Antibiotics: Antibiotic medications tend to kill off both good and bad bacteria in the gut, leaving limited good bacteria to protect health. It’s important to remember that 80 percent of the antibiotics consumed aren’t coming from doctors; rather, they come from antibiotic-laden animal products. This is why it is important to eat only organic, free-range, antibiotic-free meats and dairy products.

• Medications: Proton pump inhibitors (gastric acid blocking agents, including Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid); non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (including ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen); and oral contraceptives have been shown to upset the microbiome.

• Chronic stress: Stress tends to decrease the biodiversity of the microbiome, so it is important to manage stress and maintain good sleep hygiene.

Building a healthy microbiome

• Being born: The microbiome begins at birth, and depends on our mother’s microbial diversity and whether we’re born through the vaginal canal or not. Sometimes a C-section is necessary, but then extra effort should be made to build up the newborn’s gut flora.

• Eat fermented and sprouted foods: Fermented vegetables, cultured dairy, and sprouted seeds will promote the growth of good bacteria in the gut.

• Eat prebiotic (plant fiber that nourishes healthy gut bacteria) foods: Foods like jicama, Jerusalem artichokes, raw asparagus, raw onions, and garlic feed good bacteria.

• Eat organic: Organically grown and raised vegetables, fruits and animal products will nourish the body and feed biodiversity of the microbiome.

• Take probiotics: Probiotics can help to support a healthy microbiome, especially if you haven’t started to add fermented foods to your diet.

It’s never too late to clean up your diet

If you eliminate processed sugar from your diet today and add in organic vegetables, fruits, and animal products, your microbiome will begin to shift in as little as two days. It may take awhile to heal your gut entirely, but it’s never too late to start reaping the benefits of a healthy diet and a balanced, diverse microbiome.

If you suffer from a sensitive digestive system, remember to start slowly with probiotic supplements and fermented foods. Too much of a good thing will cause a huge die-off of bad bacteria, which is not a comfortable experience. Also, if you find that probiotics and fermented foods only make you feel worse, it would be best to see your nutrition practitioner for additional support.

How does acupuncture work?

To the typical Westerner, acupuncture may seem rather esoteric and unscientific. It doesn’t help that acupuncture is mostly explained with ancient Chinese metaphorical language and imagery. We typically hear about energy meridians that traverse the body through which energy (Qi) travels. Acupuncture points are described as areas where stuck energy can be unblocked, like turning on a light switch. The basic premise of Chinese medicine is that where Qi and blood are moving, disease can’t take hold.

After reading this, do you feel like you understand acupuncture any better than before? I know I don’t. I do get an inkling that there is truth in these statements, but the concepts are truly vague. You might wonder how I ever got through acupuncture school with these heretical assertions! 

Well, I did make it through school. I trusted that 3,000 years of positive results meant that there was a lot of truth to be found in the ancient Chinese medical texts, and that they just had to be interpreted through a lens of modern anatomy and physiology. Luckily, there are scholars who have dedicated their lives to truly understanding the ancient texts and making them not only more accessible, but more applicable for Western Chinese medicine practitioners like me. Here is a distillation for you, my clients.

In his book The Dao of Chinese Medicine, Understanding an Ancient Healing Art, author Donald Kendall discusses various interpretations of Chinese medicine throughout history, then adds his two cents. He prefers to translate Qi as vital air, AKA oxygen. He believes that blood carries oxygen through the vessels (another name for meridians). In other words, acupuncture theory relates to the circulatory system.

I’m currently in the midst of taking a 55-hour course on Neuro-Meridian Integrative Acupuncture taught by Poney Chiang. Chiang offers a slightly different interpretation of what the ancients are describing. He believes that the nerve pathways relate directly to the meridian system. He shows how each acupuncture point directly targets a specific structure, such as a nerve trunk, a nerve branch, or a nerve’s entry point into a muscle. He believes that each point has its own very specific function, which is never repeated by another point. Therefore, in-depth knowledge of each point, including its precise location and intended action, allows the acupuncturist to achieve specific results with acupuncture treatment.

Interestingly, these two interpretations of the Chinese medicine texts are actually quite similar. Nerves supply stimulation to the blood vessels. The nerves and the blood vessels often travel together, forming neurovascular bundles. Therefore, when you insert an acupuncture needle, you are often stimulating a neurovascular bundle of nerves and blood vessels.

Each needle that is inserted into the body triggers a cascade of physiological events. As Kendall puts it, “Needling therapy activates complex defensive mechanisms in the body, involving the immune system, tissue reactions, blood vessels, sensory nerves, somatovisceral pathways, autonomic nervous system, central nervous system, brain, and endocrine glands.”

Ultimately, acupuncture increases blood flow to organs and tissues, it stimulates atrophied muscles, and it releases overly tightened muscles. Acupuncture also exerts a more systemic effect, via the nerve pathways, to regulate the nervous system. 

The remarkable thing about the ancient Chinese medicine practitioners is that they determined exactly where all of these important, tucked-away anatomical structures are in the body and how to access them with an acupuncture needle. To acknowledge the correlation of acupuncture points with our modern understanding of anatomy and physiology is to acknowledge that acupuncture is grounded in science. This makes it much easier for our modern brains to grasp.

The science of health – food as medicine

A couple of weeks ago I woke up to an episode of “On Being” on Minnesota Public Radio. Krista Tippett, the moderator, led a discussion between Mark Hyman, Penny George, and James Gordon called “The Evolution of Medicine.” In a nutshell, the show was about the transition of medicine from “a science of treating disease to a science of health.”

I was snapped into consciousness by Mark Hyman, MD, saying: “I think one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the last 30 years is that food isn’t just energy, that it’s actually information that provides instructions in a literally minute-to-minute, bite-by-bite basis to everything that’s going on in your body.”

The episode was just finishing up, so I jumped out of bed, made my tea, and searched for the program online. I knew I needed to listen to the entire show before doing anything else with my day. 

The show encapsulated much of what I find to be true about health and healing in my acupuncture and nutrition practice. We must approach the body as a whole, functioning unit in order to figure out why something has gone wrong, and we must learn how to fuel and detoxify it properly to keep it functioning correctly. If we don’t do these two things, we are only managing symptoms and not assisting a person to shift into health.

I found Dr. Hyman’s comments to be particularly pertinent. Hyman has a functional medicine practice in Cleveland, Ohio. He defines functional medicine as “dealing with the causes and not just the symptoms, dealing with the body as ecosystem, or looking at the whole organism, not just the organs.”

Functional medicine, Hyman goes on to say, “is basically dismantling our concepts of disease, yet it’s completely absent from most medical institutions and thinking in medical schools. It’s as big a paradigm shift as ‘the Earth is not flat, Earth is not the center of the universe.’ It’s huge.”

I recommend the entire “On Being” program, but if you would prefer a synopsis, here are some highlighted quotes from Dr. Hyman:

• “We now think you have a disease or you don’t. But the truth is that disease arises from an imbalance in the system. I think of functional medicine as being like a soil farmer, as opposed to an industrial agriculturist, who is putting chemicals on the plant. We’re actually taking care of the soil so disease can’t actually occur, or it [disease] goes away as a side effect of creating health.”

• “When we eat real, unprocessed, organic foods to get our necessary nutrients and avoid sugars and all processed foods, which add toxins to our system and rob our bodies of nutrients, our bodies begin to heal. It is really quite amazing. and the way to avoid and turn around chronic disease.”

• “You literally change your gene expression with every bite. You change your immune system. You change your gut flora, you change your hormones, you change all the protein functions in your body, and it has a direct effect on every function, either for good or the bad, depending on what you’re eating. When you realize this, it changes your relationship to food. It’s not just a source of energy or pleasure, but actually transformational.”

• “We don’t, in medicine, know how to use food as medicine. We use drugs, we use surgery, but we have no insight that food is connected to health in most cases. And yet it’s the most powerful drug, and it works faster, better, and cheaper than any drug on the planet.”

• “I’ve had people change their diets in three days; they got off 50 units of insulin. There’s no drug that can do that. People have autoimmune disease, they can be pain-free in weeks simply changing their diet—and get off very expensive medications.” 

• “We really can shift the way we think about treating disease to be primarily food-based. I think the two big insights, really, are that food is medicine, and that the community is medicine. It’s not just a delivery mechanism. And you put those two together it’s like rocket fuel for transforming health.”

As Dr. Hyman states, you can make huge changes in your health by just changing your diet. If you want to take it one step further and provide structure to the process, Nutrition Response Testing is an amazing tool to find out exactly what your body needs nutritionally. It also can identify if there are toxins in your body that are creating unwanted symptoms, and what the best solutions are for handling them. Basically the system creates the environment in which the body can begin to heal itself.

“Everybody has that capacity to create that change in their own life, in their own body, and in their community, and that’s where it really has to start.”

What is your definition of health?

In 1948, the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” I like that this definition is focused on overall wellness, not just on lack of symptoms and diagnoses.

Since my practice focuses primarily on physical health, I want to dig a bit deeper into what “complete physical well-being” really means.

Before we begin, ask yourself:

• What does “complete physical well-being” mean to you?

• If you could change anything about your health, what would you change?

Understanding symptoms

When people come into my office, they generally have a list of symptoms that they want to remedy. What, exactly, are symptoms? The first thing to remember is that a symptom is not the first stage of something gone wrong in our bodies. Generally speaking, once symptoms occur, there has been a functional breakdown of the body over a period of time. The symptom is the body’s cry for help when it is starting to lose the battle of trying to maintain homeostasis (physiological equilibrium).

This concept holds true for both mechanical and physiological symptoms. If the body’s mechanics are impaired in one area, the whole body will begin to compensate, throwing things off both “up and downstream.” Pain and discomfort often appear after this pattern has become entrenched. Similarly, if the cells and organs aren’t functioning optimally over time, symptoms will start to occur as the body’s physiological functions begin to break down.

Think of the difference between an acute illness like the common cold and a chronic illness such as Type 2 diabetes. The cold is something that hits quickly, and the body wins the battle in a few to several days. With diabetes, on the other hand, blood sugar regulation begins to break down slowly and insidiously, until the body loses the battle and a diagnosis is made.

The second thing to remember about symptoms is that the body isn’t necessarily healed when the symptoms disappear. Total health restoration takes time. All the mechanical and physical functions must be restored so that the symptoms don’t recur. This is why many allopathic approaches are seen more as symptom management as opposed to healing the body. For example, if someone is constipated and drinking more water and taking in more fiber doesn’t fix the problem, a laxative will be prescribed. No further investigation into what might be causing the constipation in the first place will be done.

Total health restoration takes time

To fix a mechanical problem, the primary symptom, pain, needs to be handled first. Next, muscles need to be stimulated or relaxed, joints need to be mobilized, and the whole musculoskeletal system needs to be coordinated. There are many ways to get this job done: acupuncture, bodywork, chiropractic, physical therapy, and exercise training. Sometimes surgical repair is also necessary. It often takes more than one of these treatments to totally restore function.

Restoring physiological function is also a complex endeavor, but definitely worthwhile. Think of it as a cellular construction project. We need to replace 70 billion cells per day. This is a big job, but also a great opportunity. It is our opportunity to heal! In order to replace old cells with new healthy ones, we need raw materials and a clean environment. In other words, we need high-quality, organic nutrition and strategic detoxification. With these two tools, the body can heal itself.

To give you an idea how long total health restoration can take, think about the different rates at which various tissues are replaced. Skin cells turn over relatively quickly, at every 27 days. Blood cells turn over every 90 to 120 days.  Muscle, bone, and nervous system cells take much longer: 1 to 3 years, 2 to 4 years, and 7 years respectively. Of course, there is a constant cycle of cell replacement, so you start to feel better gradually over time. As the tissues are replaced, symptoms disappear and your energy, vitality, and wellbeing are restored.

Please ask yourself the following questions again

• What does “complete physical well-being” mean to you?

• If you could change anything about your health, what would you change?

Are your answers any different after reading this article? Are you more motivated to work on restoring your health? I would be honored to work with you and assist you and your body through this process. It takes effort and time, but in the end, it is totally worth it!

Do you need more than a dash of salt?

For a few decades, the message we’ve been getting from various governmental agencies is that we need to reduce our salt intake to prevent cardiovascular disease. Is this message still valid? Does the type of salt we consume make a difference? Read on!

Current national dietary guidelines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advocate reducing daily sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams (a little more than a teaspoon). People 51 and older; African Americans of any age; and those with hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease are advised to further reduce intake to 1,500 mg. About half of the U.S. population, including children, and the majority of adults, fall into the categories affected by the 1,500 mg recommendation.

In the 1970s, the National Institutes of Health based its recommendations on two research studies. One was an observation of a population that ate very little salt and exhibited no high blood pressure. That population’s diet, it turns out, wasn’t representative of the standard American diet, and they didn’t eat sugar, among other things. The other study was done on rats who were bred to be salt-sensitive and fed 60 times more sodium than the average American consumes. Not surprisingly, the rats exhibited high blood pressure on their high-salt diet. Both of these studies led to a one-to-one assumption that salt caused hypertension.

The well-known DASH-Sodium study conducted in 2001 was conducted over only 30 days. The outcome was that eating significantly less salt would modestly lower blood pressure. All the government agencies currently endorsing a low-salt diet have based their recommendations on this outcome, with no further studies showing whether a low-salt diet would reduce hypertension, prevent heart disease, or lengthen life.

Yet, despite recommendations based on these studies, the average American currently consumes about 3,700 mg of sodium per day. This figure has remained constant for the past 50 years, despite an increase in hypertension and heart disease.

New studies show downside of low-salt diets

Several recent studies have actually showed the detrimental effects of low-salt diets, including an increase in heart disease and dying prematurely. As sodium levels decrease, these studies concluded, triglyceride levels, insulin resistance, and the activity of the sympathetic nervous system increase. These factors can contribute to an increased heart disease risk. As a side note, if you are having real salt cravings (not just a pretzel craving to go with your beer), be aware that this is a cry for help from your adrenal glands. If you cut out salt, they will shut down.

The studies that blow holes in the low-salt diet theory indicate that there seems to be a sweet spot between 3,000 mg and 7,000 mg of sodium consumption to maintain good cardiovascular health. Above and below that range, there is a significant increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure, and death from heart disease. Avoiding processed foods and salting to taste are the best ways to get the appropriate amount of sodium in your diet. If you exercise a lot, sweating out sodium, be sure to consume more salt.

So if reducing salt doesn’t manage blood pressure, what does?

Potassium. Sodium and potassium must be in appropriate balance to maintain general health and cardiovascular health specifically.  The modern diet tends to be lower in potassium than the diet of our ancestors. To manage your blood pressure try increasing potassium levels by eating foods such as: lima and kidney beans, sweet potatoes, winter squash, potatoes, cooked spinach and avocado. Eating a wide variety of these foods and salting to taste should ensure that you’re keeping your sodium and potassium in balance.

Is one salt better than another?

Absolutely! Standard table salt is highly processed and has been stripped of nutritionally important trace minerals, leaving primarily sodium chloride. Often it has other ingredients added such as dextrose, which is a sugar, and anti-caking agents. The healthier salts to choose from are Himalayan salt and Celtic sea salt/gray salt. They are minimally processed, they contain necessary trace minerals and they have a delicious flavor. The one sea salt to avoid consuming is Dead Sea salt, as it is high in bromide, which can lead to toxicity. Be aware that it is still important to read labels when purchasing salt, to be sure that there are no unwanted ingredients.

What you need to know about GMO foods

There has been a lot of talk about GMO (genetically modified organism) crops and foods over the past several years. On one hand, those who are fiercely opposed to growing and consuming these foods say GMOs endanger human health and the environment. Biotech companies, on the other hand, continue to make the argument for GMOs because they increase crop yields and thus produce more food to feed the growing population.

These types of crops are heavily regulated throughout the world, yet the United States continues to increase GMO production. At the state level, there are big debates over labeling laws. Consumer organizations are fighting for foods to be labeled to increase awareness of GMO ingredients in food. Large biotech companies are fighting this tooth and nail.

How can we navigate all of this complex information? What choices should we make? Below I address the issue predominantly from my primary perspective, health, and offer more resources to consult in order to make an informed decision.

What are GMO foods?

GMOs are created in a laboratory by taking genes from one species or organism and inserting them into another to obtain or enhance certain characteristics. Historically, hybridization or breeding has been done within a plant or animal family (plum with apricot, or pig with pig).

When something is genetically engineered or modified, an animal gene may be spliced with a plant gene, something that would never occur in nature.​ As a part of the genetic engineering process, a plant virus is combined with the gene to act as a promoter, something like turning on a switch. It activates the gene and keeps it “on” constantly to increase the effect of this added gene.

Finally, in testing for viability of the GMOs, antibiotic-resistant marker genes are used to saturate the GMOs with antibiotics to see which survive. Survival indicates that the organism has taken on the new DNA.

What traits have been added to GMO crops?

Currently, the primary traits that have been added to GMO crops are herbicide tolerance and the ability of the plant to produce its own pesticide. What this translates to is more toxicity. The plant won’t die when the farmer sprays more herbicide on it, and the plant itself is toxic to insects and anything that eats it. The farmers who are aware of its dangers have already switched to safer alternatives such as roller crimper or crop rollers, which happens to perform the same function as a herbicide, but the struggle to completely remove this chemical is still ongoing.

How can GMOs affect health?

• Toxicity
  As previously mentioned, there are higher herbicide residues (primarily Glyphosate, a.k.a. Round Up) on GMO food crops. This leads to increased toxicity in the human body, which can manifest in many ways, including liver damage, reproductive problems, birth defects and cancer.

• Increased allergies
  In the UK, a 1999 study showed a 50% increase in soy allergies one year after genetically modified soy was introduced by U.S. imports. That is a scary statistic! The theory is that new genes produce an unrecognizable protein that causes a potential allergy. Furthermore, tests show that some people react to genetically modified soy and not to wild, natural soy.

• Potential antibiotic resistance
  A recent study in New Zealand showed a correlation between glyphosate and antibiotic resistance. Despite the fact that the concentrations of glyphosate studied were above the currently approved residue levels on food, this link warns of potential danger.

Which foods to be concerned about

The primary genetically modified crops in the U.S. include soy, cotton, canola, sugar beets, corn, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, and yellow squash. Despite the fact that this list is relatively short, you must think about all the products derived from these crops, such as soy protein, soy lecithin cornstarch, corn syrup, canola oil, and so much more. Don’t forget about meat, eggs, and dairy products from animals fed with genetically modified feed. Now we have quite a long list!

If you wish to avoid GMO foods, avoid all processed foods unless specifically labeled “Non-GMO” or “Organic.” You can also consult the following shopping guide:

The Non-GMO Shopping Guide

​Where do we go from here?

A big part of the concern regarding GMO foods is that we are venturing into the unknown. Nobody knows what potential problems could occur from tinkering with our food supply in this way. More research must be done before dumping more and more genetically modified foods into our grocery stores. It’s noteworthy that at the end of April the restaurant chain Chipotle made a big splash with its announcement that they would no longer use GMO ingredients, citing the need for more research and to give them a marketing edge.

Our health is of utmost importance, and we should make it our first priority. The environmental impact of biotech farming will also affect our health eventually…not to mention the health of the planet.

Lick the Sugar Habit

Do you suffer from sugar cravings, mood swings, fatigue, aches and pains, digestive issues? Do you get sick frequently? All of these symptoms and many more are often related to too much sugar in our diets.

According to the USDA, the average American consumes more than 150 pounds of sugar in a year. Wow! Less than 100 years ago, the average person ate only five pounds per year. That’s quite an increase.

I just finished reading a book called Lick the Sugar Habit, by Nancy Appleton, PhD. It is quite an eye-opener to find out about the far-reaching, detrimental effects of sugar on our bodies, and how and why sugar has this effect. Appleton has an interesting personal story to tell about how sugar affected her life, and how it motivated her to study clinical nutrition.

Let’s begin by defining sugar for the purposes of this discussion. Simple sugars include sucrose, honey, fructose, glucose, dextrose, levulose, maltose, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, maple sugar, galactose, brown sugar, dextrine, barley malt, rice syrup, corn sweetener and corn syrup.

Are you addicted to sugar?

To get an idea if sugar is affecting your health and life, I suggest that you take Nancy Appleton’s Sugar Quiz.  If you answered “false” to more than four of the statements, you are likely addicted to sugar.  If you answered “false” to fewer than four statements, you may not be addicted to sugar, but it may still be affecting your health.

How does sugar affect your health?

Our bodies are always striving for balance: balance of minerals, balance of hormones, balance of overall blood chemistry. If something upsets this balance, the body starts down the path to disease. The more unhealthy one is, the longer it takes for the body to recover from nutritional indiscretions and find its way back to balance. It can take as little as two teaspoons of sugar to greatly throw off the body’s chemistry.

Minerals

One of the things that is affected by eating sugar is mineral balance. Research shows that each mineral works in conjunction with all other minerals. When the level of one is off, the whole group of minerals do not function properly.

When we ingest sugar, the level of calcium in our blood rises. Where does the calcium come from? Our bones. Therefore, the best recommendation for osteopenia/osteoporosis is to stop eating sugar. Taking more calcium just throws the mineral balance off further.

Hormones

Another sugar-sensitive system in our bodies is the hormonal system. Much like minerals, when one hormone level is out of balance, the whole system is affected. Eating sugar speeds up the functioning of certain glands, such as the pancreas and adrenals, upsetting the whole balance. This lack of hormonal balance can lead to many symptoms such as mood swings, hormonal issues, poor sleep, or to diabetes.

Enzymes

Digestive enzymes are affected by sugar via the mineral balance of our body. Most enzymes are mineral-dependent to do their work. When we eat sugar, usable minerals are depleted and the enzymes in our small intestines can’t digest food properly. This in turn means that our cells aren’t able to use the nutrition that we ingest.

Food allergies/sensitivities

As the above suggests, the food that is in our stomach at the same time that we eat sugar will not be digested properly. This decomposing food will eventually lead to an allergy or sensitivity to the food that is in the stomach. It is no coincidence that the most common allergies and sensitivites are things frequently eaten with sugar, including wheat, corn, milk, chocolate, eggs.

Immune system

The immune system is affected by sugar on multiple levels. Some studies show that two hours after eating sugar, immune activity is greatly decreased. In other words, sugar greatly decreases how many bacteria are handled by our immune system. The allergy/sensitivity cycle mentioned above slowly fatigues immune function. And, the chronic mineral and hormonal imbalance will break down the immune system over time, all leading to degenerative disease.

The monkey is on our back

As Nancy Appleton writes: “A person’s genes do not cause disease—rather, the culprit is an abusive lifestyle that constantly upsets the body chemistry. We are all born with a genetic blueprint. When you upset your body chemistry continually, the disease of your genetic blueprint is more likely to develop than if you keep your body in balance. This concept forces us to recognize that we are responsible for our disease. It puts the monkey on our back.”

For another recent thought-provoking take on sugar’s negative effects on health and Minnesota’s role in its production, check out “The new Public Enemy No. 1: Sugar,” in the April 26 Star Tribune.

Life Without Bread

Paleo and low carb diets are the latest nutrition buzz. You might be wondering if avoiding carbohydrates is a way to lose weight, a healthier way to eat or just a fad? What exactly is a carbohydrate anyway?

Let’s turn to the book Life Without Bread, by Christian Allan and Wolfgang Lutz to find some answers. Lutz, an Austrian physician, published the original German version in 1967 after decades of helping his patients live healthier lives by following a low-carbohydrate diet.

The authors of Life Without Bread are proponents of eating animal foods and vegetables (except potatoes) freely, and limiting all sources of high carbohydrate foods: breads, pastas, cereals, pastries, potatoes, sweet/dried fruits, and anything sweetened.

Their recommendation is to restrict daily “utilizable” carbohydrate intake to 72 grams per day. Utilizable, a.k.a. net carbohydrates, translates to the amount of carbohydrates that ends up in the blood stream after eating a certain food. To give you a point of reference on net carbohydrates, one medium apple has 21 grams, one medium bagel has 54 grams and one medium baked potato has 33 grams of net carbohydrates. A great, inexpensive resource for net carbohydrate content of foods is The New Carb and Calorie Counter by Dana Carpender.

The health benefits of limiting sugar/carbohydrate intake

According to the authors, limiting sugar load on the body is the best way to improve and maintain health. They give many examples of how a low-carbohydrate diet improves health, including balancing hormones, supporting cardiovascular health, healing gastrointestinal diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, and preventing diabetes and cancer.

When we eat sugar, insulin is released into our bloodstream. Sustained high levels of insulin upset the balance of all the hormones in the body. The body is always trying to maintain homeostasis, and if a hormone level increases, others have to adjust to bring the body back into some sort of balance.

In other words, high insulin levels can

• upset the levels of steroid hormones, triggering a decrease in immune function

• disrupt thyroid hormone levels causing hypo- or hyperthyroid conditions

• create an imbalance in the sex hormones, causing menstrual or menopausal complaints

• lead to insulin resistance, resulting in type II diabetes

• decrease growth hormone. leading to atherosclerosis and the lack of tissue repair from injury, etc.

What happened to the lipid hypothesis?

A chapter in Life Without Bread discusses the outdated belief that fat is bad for us and the cause of cardiovascular disease. Since fat was demonized in the 1950s, people began eating low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets. Since then, health in the US has fallen apart. Obesity has risen to dangerous proportions and chronic illness is on the rise. Lutz and Allan cite much research debunking the myth that fat and cholesterol are the cause of heart disease.

If you’re looking for a good reference to better understand basic nutrition (I’ve included a short guide below) and the benefits of limiting carbohydrates in your diet, I highly recommend Life Without Bread. It is backed up by research and years of experience–and it is very readable!

I was particularly struck by the “teeter-totter” drawings depicting how hormones adjust if insulin levels rise. In other words, that extra cookie not only promotes weight gain, it also affects sleep, hormone levels, mood, the immune system, and digestive tract, not to mention that it increases the risk of type II diabetes, cancer and heart disease. I finally get it!

A Guide to Nutrition Basics

There are three basic types of nutrients: proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

• Proteins are the primary building blocks for our cells and tissues. They perform many functions and take on different forms, such as enzymes, antibodies, and hormones. Complete proteins contain essential amino acids (essential, meaning they must be obtained from your diet). Complete proteins are found in animal foods. In order to receive the full benefit of dietary protein, all essential amino acids must be consumed in the same meal, which makes relying solely on plant proteins complicated. If only a few amino acids are consumed in a meal, they can’t be stored and are subsequently eliminated, causing the potential for deficiencies.

• Fats are the primary storage form of energy in the body and provide the most energy to our cells. Fats also have different forms and functions in the body such as hormones and being the primary constituents of cell membranes, which play a role in metabolic functions. Fats are classified as saturated and unsaturated. Both forms contain the essential (i.e. must be obtained from your diet) fatty acids. Saturated fats, found in animal foods tend to provide equal amounts of the essential fatty acids, whereas unsaturated fats from plant sources provide predominantly one or the other.

• Carbohydrates are predominantly an energy source. There are simple carbohydrates, which metabolize quickly, and complex carbohydrates, which metabolize more slowly. The main point to understand about carbohydrates is that they all break down into sugar, and eating large amounts of carbohydrates in any form can be detrimental to your health.​

Are you really a healthy eater?

By a happy coincidence, there is an excellent article this month in Acupuncture Today, written by Marlene Merritt, DOM, LAc, ACN  about the myths and truths of healthy eating. I highly recommend that you read “Are you really a healthy eater?

Please Welcome Dina Gayle!

Dina Gayle is Red Clover Clinic’s new office manager. She began working full time on January 6.

Dina’s role will be to facilitate the office side of things, including scheduling appointments and taking payments, so that I can focus on you, my clients, and clinical work. Picking up supplements and herbs between appointments will be easier to arrange with Dina on board—one of many perks she will bring.

Many of you have already met Dina over the past several weeks as she was getting introduced to the clinic in small doses. She is a warm and wonderful addition to Red Clover Clinic. I know you will enjoy working with Dina. I know I do!

Hello, my name is Dina Gayle. My husband Harley and I met on a cruise ship 27 years ago. He’s from Montego Bay, Jamaica, and we’ve been married for 19 years. Harley is a bartender extraordinaire and is busy creating designs for a tee-shirt business that he’s in the process of launching. We have three beautiful—on the inside and out—daughters. Jamaica, 19, is a freshman at American University in Washington, DC. She will have an internship with Senator Al Franken this semester. Makayla, 17, is a senior at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. She loves to sing and act. Sophia, 15, is a sophomore at Irondale High School and loves to play soccer.  Before I got married, I was a massage therapist for a couple of years. I also worked as a nanny in Connecticut, Oregon, and Minnesota. I look forward to working with Anita and learning more about what she does, as well as to meeting all of you. 

Are your teeth hiding something from you?

I recently returned from Nova Scotia where I attended a Level III course on German Auricular Medicine. It was a wonderful experience that included refining current techniques and learning a few new ones.

One technique we concentrated on was the assessment and treatment of hidden dental foci. I have discussed the treatment of focus activity in a few newsletters, including the September/October 2014 issue.

What’s a focus?

Let’s review… A focus is a stubborn and hidden blockage to healing that interferes with the body’s ability to self-regulate and heal. It is typically caused by past stress or trauma or hidden inflammation. An otherwise healthy person may be unaware of focus activity in the body until another stress occurs that triggers a cascade of symptoms.The stress could be an accident, intense emotional stress, or otherwise innocuous illness,

One way to think about it: “A focal disturbance that goes unnoticed is like a smoldering fire which threatens to flare up with the next gust of wind.” (Beate Strittmatter, in her book Identifying and Treating Blockages to Healing.)

When someone does not respond to acupuncture, homeopathy, or chiropractic treatment–or they only get a few hours of relief–their main complaint is most likely not the primary problem. Their primary problem is most likely caused by a focus.

Another way to think about it is that a healthy person who has no hidden foci will typically recover from an injury or illness after a short period of rest and healing. Someone with a chronic focus, on the other hand, will most likely experience worsening symptoms or develop a chronic condition.

What on earth could your teeth be hiding?

Most of us have experienced dental work, be it a filling, crown, tooth extraction, or root canal. The trouble is, the trauma from dental work, unsuitable filling materials, deep tooth decay, or impacted wisdom teeth can leave behind debris and inflammation that is often painless and goes unnoticed. The body will attempt to protect itself from this debris and localized inflammation by walling it off from the rest of the body. This process gradually drains the body’s energy and leads to focus activity.

Why is dental health particularly important?

If there is inflammation in a tooth, our body as a whole is going to be weakened by it. Furthermore, the meridian system is connected to each tooth, creating correlations with other parts of the body. A diseased tooth can cause a stubborn problem in a distant part of the body. If the tooth problem isn’t remedied, the related part of the body will fail to heal as well.

In the early 20th century, Dr. Weston Price became curious about chronic health problems associated with root-canaled teeth. He continued his studies and wrote two books on the link between dental pathology and chronic illness. This article addresses health concerns associated with root canals and some of Dr. Price’s findings.

Assessment and treatment of hidden dental foci with German auricular medicine

In the German auricular medical system, we often use laser light encoded with specific electrical frequencies to gather particular kinds of information from the body. Think of tuning into a different radio station to hear a different program.

Beate Strittmatter, mentioned above, discovered that by using a particular frequency, she could single out focus activity in the dental area. Since the only way to find this information is with the use of a frequency, it is called the “hidden system.” Addressing hidden dental foci becomes very important in the case of chronic problems that are not healing with regular focus therapy.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to address all focus activity, be it dental or otherwise. Even a healthy person who is free of symptoms can preventively benefit from addressing focus activity. Removing the stress caused by a focus through use of German auricular medicine can restore your energy reserve so you can respond to new stressors and challenges down the line.

Do you have any chronic health problems that don’t seem to respond to typical therapies?

Roadblocks to healing

Is something preventing you from healing?

Earlier in my practice when someone came to me with a particular complaint, I tried to figure out how to directly treat the symptoms and condition, then balance the energy in the body. 

Sounds good, right?

Sometimes the results were good. But, sometimes they weren’t—the symptoms lessened temporarily, but then came right back. This was not only frustrating for my clients, but for me as well. I knew that there was something missing in my approach, and I had to figure out what it was.

Scrolling forward, I have learned that what needs to occur is to identify, clear, and treat roadblocks to healing. More often than not, the thing or things that are blocking you from healing are masked and difficult to identify. Fortunately, I have found two modalities, German auricular acupuncture and Nutrition Response Testing, that make it possible for me to identify, monitor, and treat these roadblocks. Using these two techniques has significantly improved my results so that many more of my clients can heal and improve their health. 

What can cause a healing roadblock?

Focus activity

A “focus” is a stubborn and hidden blockage to healing, caused by either a body/brain memory of a particular stress or trauma, or from a physical or emotional wound that is concealed within the body. The body becomes consumed with healing these blockages and can’t attend to healing other day-to-day issues. 

The person who has such a blockage will experience chronic conditions, possibly without having experienced obvious injury or illness. Perceivable, diagnosable conditions can be ameliorated by lessening the stress load on the body by treating focus activity. Focus activity can be identified and treated with German auricular acupuncture, using needles and/or low-level laser therapy. 

Obstructions and confusion in the nervous system

Our nervous systems can get disrupted from time to time by various stressors in our bodies and environments. When this happens, the body just won’t heal. It’s stuck. Using Nutrition Response Testing (see article in March-April 2014 newsletter), I can find out if your nervous system is stressed or confused, figure out what is causing it, and help you to fix it. These obstructions and confusions are most often caused by one or more of the items listed below under body stressors.

Body stressors

Throughout our lives, our bodies are exposed to many stressors, such as toxic substances and foods that are less than nutritious. The most common body stressors include food sensitivities, immune challenges, chemicals, heavy metals, scars (which also fall under the focus activity category), as well as things like watches, jewelry, cell phones, etc. These exposures can stress and assault an organ, a joint, or any part of our body over time. 

When someone comes to the clinic with a particular complaint, it is important to identify whether or not their complaint is being caused or exacerbated by a particular body stressor. If it is, they won’t heal completely without avoiding exposure, detoxing, or treating that stressor. 

Using Nutrition Response Testing, the exact source of body stress can be identified and treated. Treatment methods include avoiding certain foods, nutritional counseling, nutritional supplementation, herbal therapy, and low-level laser therapy.

As you can see, if you’re not getting better, it’s important to dig a little deeper.  You might be surprised by what’s causing a roadblock in your healing.

A late summer plant walk

I found these two beautiful kidney remedies growing near each other on the same day in late August in Silverwood Park.

Joe Pye Weed – Eupatorium purpureum

This is a plant that grows where water and land meet. It often has calcifications stuck around its roots, which explains its other name: gravel root. These two signatures point towards its primary use in herbalism to balance water and solids. This makes it an excellent kidney remedy. It can help to flush out excess fluids, as well as to pull out calcifications from the kidneys and joints, i.e. kidney stones and arthritis. This powerful plant can free up and lubricate frozen joints as well as help to heal broken bones.

Goldenrod – Solidago canadensis

Goldenrod has strong diuretic properties brought about by stimulating the kidneys. Thus, it is useful to treat swelling in the body. As well as being draining in nature, it is also cooling, making it a useful urinary tract infection remedy. Much as it clears fluid and inflammation from the lower part of the body, it can also clear mucous and inflammation from the sinuses. It can be a useful addition to an allergy protocol.

Eat your veggies!

It’s summer! The growing season is at its peak. Farmers markets and grocery stores are chock full of locally grown vegetables in all colors, shapes, and sizes.

We focus so often on what we can’t or shouldn’t eat, so in this article, I want to focus on what we should eat—and eat in large quantities—vegetables! They are so good for us.

Apart from canned and frozen versions, vegetables are typically purchased whole. This is a good thing. More and more, people are aware that eating foods as close as possible to their natural state is best for their health. The nutrition found in a carrot, as opposed to the nutrients found in a standard vitamin pill, could not be more different. 

The whole carrot includes a whole food complex. This means that it includes both the specific vitamins represented by the pharmaceutical counterparts in the vitamin pill AND phytonutrients and other constituents that work together to give you more nutrition that is more easily assimilated.

Variety is the key

Variety is the key…don’t just eat salad, or just raw carrots, or just tomato sauce. Variety is not only the spice of life, it also gives us nutritional balance and the best chance to experience vibrant health and vitality. 

Which brings me to another important point. Fruits are not vegetables! You can’t replace your veggies with sweet-tasting fruits. 

You need to eat from the following categories of vegetables to get a broad array of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants: 

• Dark leafy greens: kale, collards, chard, spinach, arugula, endive, escarole, mustard greens, lettuce

• Sulfur-rich vegetables: cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, radishes, turnips, onions, garlic, mushrooms, asparagus

• Colorful veggies: beets, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, pumpkin, peppers, radicchio, red cabbage

• Seaweed: any seaweed harvested from clean waters will do if consumed a couple of times per week. 

Eating a variety of organic vegetables daily will help to reduce your risk of many chronic diseases, including cancer. Vegetables are a healthy source of fiber, which promotes good digestion and helps to stabilize blood sugar. 

The dense nutrition found in vegetables will help to detox your body of harmful heavy metals, chemicals, and toxins, which will result in decreased inflammation throughout the body, clearer skin, clearer thinking, and increased energy and vitality.

Make time for veggies

You might be thinking that this all sounds great, but who has the time? You need to make the time. Your health is important! All it takes is a little bit of planning, creativity, and experimentation to find out what you like, and how you can prepare your food efficiently. 

When you eat out, look for salads and sides of vegetables to boost your vegetable intake. When you are at home, think about how your meals can be built around vegetables rather than protein or grains. The protein and grains should be the garnish, rather than the other way around. 

You can also look for creative ways to sneak in more veggies by making things like cauliflower rice and zucchini noodles with a few fun kitchen tools. I have found that snacking on carrot sticks has made me happily reduce my intake of dark chocolate…who would have thought?

Many things don’t even take more time, if you have the ingredients on hand. 

• add spinach to your scrambled eggs or black bean quesadillas

• make a salad rather than a sandwich

• sauté vegetables instead of cooking rice or boiling pasta. If you miss your starch, eat squash and sweet potatoes. 

Once you start eating more vegetables, you will find you have more energy. Furthermore, you will begin to crave these wonderful jewels that Mother Nature produces for us. 

What are your favorite veggies?

Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme

Herbs are another gift of the plant kingdom. Typically, culinary herbs are high in volatile oils that act as carminatives to settle the digestion. They add a lot of flavor to a meal, as well as help to digest it comfortably. Apart from cooking, these herbs made “famous” by Simon and Garfunkel are also useful additions to a herbal pharmacy.

Parsley

Parsley is probably the most commonly used culinary herb. Aside from being a common garnish, it is used to flavor just about anything. Medicinally, it acts not only on the digestive tract, but also on the kidneys. It is a diuretic that helps to clear congestion from the kidneys, making it useful to manage gout, swelling, kidney stones, and other conditions.

Sage

Sage is commonly used to flavor meats and stuffings. I think it is also delicious with squash and potatoes. It’s super tasty when whole leaves are toasted lightly in olive oil, making a nice garnish for many dishes. Sage tea is a useful remedy for sore throats and fevers. It is also mildly astringent, making it a good treatment for bleeding gums and night sweats. Sage (specifically, the desert-grown variety) is always a part of my herbal repertoire when treating hot flashes.

Rosemary

Like sage, rosemary is a strongly flavored herb that is a good compliment for heavier foods like roasted meat and vegetables. It is also delicious in breads. Rosemary calms the digestion, improves circulation and relieves nervous depression. It is very useful in skin and hair treatments, and can relieve headaches.

Thyme

In my mind, thyme is a little more versatile than rosemary and sage, but can also be used in the same ways. Slightly lighter in flavor than rosemary and sage, thyme works well with lighter soups and vegetables. Apart from the digestion, thyme has a strong effect on the lungs. It can treat colds, coughs, phlegm, and shortness of breath.