Myintegrativehealth Blog – Adrenal Fatigue – Natural Hormone Therapy – Thyroid Dysfunction – Pain Relief – Digestive Health

Mention the phrase “food allergies” and most of us imagine those poor kiddos who get near a peanut butter sandwich only to have massive swelling around the eyes and throat, followed by difficulty breathing and hives.  The constellation of these symptoms make up what’s known as an anaphylactic reaction which, unfortunately, has become more and more frequent in the general population over recent years.  In fact, some newer studies suggest that approximately 3-8% of Americans run the risk of anaphylaxis when exposed to any number of foods, although tree nuts, milk and shellfish are at the top of the anaphylactic list.

Even more, we are seeing a less severe variation of these dangerous food allergies, called “allergy sensitivities” that don’t typically cause life-threatening symptoms, but can still be quite uncomfortable nonetheless.  If you have symptoms like indigestion, gastritis, eczema, asthma, celiac disease, arthritis, and even depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue, it could be a result of a “food sensitivity.”  Additional reports suggest that at least 60% of Americans suffer from symptoms due to adverse food reactions as a result of food sensitivities.

Food allergies/sensitivities may be a reaction to a protein, a starch, a contaminant found in the food (e.g., pesticide residues) or a food additive (e.g., colorings, preservatives, flavor enhancers, etc).  Once the body decides it’s uneasy with a food, a complex cascade of events takes place that can result in either a life-threatening situation (anaphylaxis) or simply the aforementioned unpleasant symptoms.

Driving this reaction is the immune system’s production of multiple types of antibodies.  For example, during an anaphylaxis response, IgE antibodies are produced within two hours of exposure.  These antibodies then bind to specific cells called mast cells and basophils which release their inner contents–histamine.  This is why an anti-histamine, like Benadryl or Quercetin, is often prescribed for allergies.

Yet, it’s the more delayed allergic response found in food sensitivities, one that can take up to 72-hours after exposure, that causes the aforementioned “uncomfortable” symptoms.  This response is usually driven by IgG antibodies and although it can stimulate the release of some histamine, it usually recruits many more players of the immune system, further complicating the reaction in the body.

Studies suggest that dairy, wheat and eggs are the three biggest sources of food sensitivities in people.  How is this determined?  In the past, the skin prick test was used where small amounts of foods were injected into the skin either on the back or forearm.  Now a simple blood test does away with this antiquated test.  These blood tests can measure for both IgG and IgE antibodies and help guide you and your provider in a direction for food avoidance, which is the mainstay of treatment.

So if you suffer from indigestion, asthma, eczema, etc., simply avoiding problematic foods could be your ticket to feeling well.  In addition to elimination, I recommend rotation of food families (e.g., veggies, fruits, meats, etc.) along with assisting the body with its normal digestive processes through the use of pancreatic and stomach enzymes.  Probiotics can be quite helpful as well.

Living in fear of foods because of their potential to make us sick is unnecessary when you recognize there are easy ways to identify possible sources of food allergies/sensitivities.  Combined with practical and realistic interventions you can take to calm the reaction and subsequent symptoms, you can alleviate a multitude of health conditions.

There is a scary new disease identified as ‘Orthorexia Nervosa’.  It is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek attack on the elaborate web of food rules we find ourselves trapped in.  ‘Ortho’ refers to right or correct.  The ‘rexia’ is of course taken from anorexia, meaning suppressed appetite.  Interestingly the origin of anorexia is the same origin as the term rack, meaning to straighten.  We straighten our arms when we reach, therefore reaching became tied to appetite as in reaching for food.

Over the years I’ve heard so many versions of what to avoid.  If I avoided every food that I’ve ever been told to I would literally have nothing left except perhaps a few types of lettuce.  Oh, wait, the Chinese medical texts do recommend against raw vegetables.  OK, so cooked romaine.  That would get old fast.   We have to eat something.

Many current researchers and public health experts are realizing that telling someone not to eat something bad may be less productive than encouraging them to eat something good.  The best things to go out of our way to eat are the foods that give us the greatest benefits (number of important nutrients) for the least harm (calories).

Several authors have embraced the term ‘superfoods’ to describe certain foods that are especially high in nutrients and low in calories.  Although there is no formal list, some of the superfoods are tastier and more readily available than others.

Variety is certainly important in the diet, but with modern foods the idea of variety is misleading.  Rotating your morning Pop Tarts between cinnamon and cherry does not count as variety.  If you are talking about foods as great as the superfoods, don’t be afraid to find a few favorites and eat them everyday!

So why don’t we eat well?  The biggest concern I hear is that people don’t have time.  Between my family, practicing medicine, training and writing, believe me, I understand about time constraints.

The problem is that many have an idea of shopping daily and making every dish from scratch.  Mind you it’s a blast to spend a few hours puttering around in the kitchen, but that is not realistic for our workdays.  Bear in mind that anything you eat from wherever you get it will take some time.  If all of your meals are drive throughs, heaven forbid, you’ll still be spending at least 15 minutes per day just waiting in line.

Below are my top 20 easy to find superfoods.  Stay with me and I’ll show you how you can get most of these in a day with under 15 minutes of work, I promise!

1. Spinach
2. Broccoli
3. Blueberries
4. Carrots
5. Edamame
6. Black beans
7. Tomatoes
8. Turmeric
9. Grass-fed beef
10. Salmon
11. Mushrooms
12. Celery
13. Walnuts
14. Almonds
15. Greek yogurt
16. Avocado
17. Green tea
18. Pomegranate
19. Steel cut oats
20. Brown rice

When you wake up, make a 5 a day drink.  If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s the

videoon how to do it.    So far we’ve invested 3 minutes.

For breakfast, warm some pre-cooked steel cut oats from Sprouts or Whole Foods, just 1/4 cup if you’re watching your weight, add a dollop of non-fat plain Greek yogurt, some blueberries and a few almonds.  Now is also a good time for a cup of green or white tea.

So, 2 minutes to warm oatmeal and assemble, our tally is at 5 minutes.

Before you leave for work, pour together a nice salad.  Shop right and you’ll have zero prep work to do.

Mix into a large bowl:

• Washed spinach leaves
• 2-3 ounces smoked salmon
• Sliced mushrooms
• Prepped pomegranate seeds (you can now buy these already cleaned and separated!)
• Broccoli florets
• Black beans, canned – rinsed
• Walnuts, small handful
• 1 – 2 tbsp natural guacamole

The guacamole also works as a ‘dressing’ and flavoring for the salad.  This whole process should not take more than 2 minutes so we’re at 7 minutes.

For dinner, sauté some lean grass fed ground beef, add in Thai curry paste (Turmeric and lots of great flavor).  Stir in your favorite frozen mixed vegetable blend and serve over pre-cooked brown rice.  Have 1/4 cup of rice only if you’re watching your weight.  Allow 5 minutes for this and we’re at 12 minutes of cooking for the whole day and we ate every single superfood!  How awesome is that!

Fabulous Fiber
No single nutrient does more to purify our bodies and prevent diseases than fiber.  As important as fiber is, it remains largely misunderstood.  Here’s some of the most common fiber facts and fallacies.

Fallacy: I get plenty of fiber, I have a salad everyday.

Fact: Salads are great sources of produce.  We all should be focusing on getting plenty of produce from a variety of sources.  Having said that, salads as typically made rarely provide more than a few grams of fiber.  Most provide high amounts of saturated fats in the dressing and cheese and trans-fatty acids in the croutons.  To order a healthy salad, hold the cheese and croutons, get vinaigrette on the side and add some beans.

Fallacy: I can’t eat high fiber foods like beans, they give me gas and bloating.

Fact: This definitely can happen initially.  What is going on is that the fiber stimulates growth of specific strains of good bacteria.  If you have too few of them, they kill off bad organisms in your intestines.  This killing off process releases gas.  When it comes to adding fiber, take it slowly.  Even just add a tablespoon or two of beans to your food each day for a few weeks.  Soon you’ll be able to thrive on high fiber foods without chasing away those around you!

Fallacy: I’m trying to lose weight so I’m staying away from grains.

Fact: While most of us get too much processed carbohydrates in our diets, numerous studies show that those who eat the most high fiber whole grains are the leanest.  If weight loss is a goal, you still need grains but in the right amounts.  Consume roughly 1/2 of a cup of brown rice, bulgar wheat, quinoa, barley or oatmeal with each meal.

Fallacy: High fiber foods taste bad!

Fact: Flavors in foods are carried by volatile aromatic compounds.  These compounds are at their highest concentration in the germ of the grain.  Think of a grain like an egg.  The shell is the husk, the starch is the white and the germ is the yolk.  Refined grains are just the starch, the complex flavors and aromas are lost in the refining process.   Pick up a pound of organic basmati brown rice and a pound of plain white rice.  Cook the white rice and notice the lack of aroma in the kitchen.  Then try the basmati, the whole kitchen will smell like hot buttered popcorn.  By the way, popcorn is also a whole grain!

Habits die hard.  When you try to make change, you often run your mind through the reasons why it is hard.  This kind of data has been called ‘TBU’ for True But Useless.  We know why things don’t work, it is not helpful to further explore the obstacles.  What is useful is that a small correction can yield huge improvement.  So what is the tiny change that you can do that can radically improve your health?

Well, most disease comes from lifestyle.  The largest single problem with your lifestyle is that it causes you to gain weight.  When does most weight gain occur?  A recent study shows that most weight gain occurs from October to December.  When it comes to holiday weight gain, we have a disconnect between our perceptions and reality.

Americans actually gain less than they think each holiday season, but they also take off less than they think afterwards.  Most adults pack on an extra pound or two each season and never take it off.  Think about it, from age 20 to age 40 that’s an extra 20-40 pounds.  This can raise you risks for cancer, heart disease and diabetes over 4 fold.  Ironically, the biggest single problem with weight gain is also the main cosmetic concern: belly fat!

Fat around your midsections is like a time bomb.  The omentum is the organ that holds new fat and when it has extra, it seeps out toxic inflammatory chemicals that hurt your blood vessels, weaken your immunity and disrupt your blood sugar control.

OK, so now we know the timing of weight gain but, what is the one easy way to counter it?  I propose doing nothing different over the holidays.  Be reasonable with indulgences, but enjoy yourself.  The trick will be to go into the holidays leaner and healthier then ever and ending them even better yet.

I propose that we take a week before the holiday season to speed our metabolism, drop several pounds and get rid of toxins stored in our fat tissue.

Join me and our staff for a one week ‘Rejuvenation’ process!  Not only will you prevent holiday weight gain, you’ll get caught up from the last several years!

You’ll love this process – I’ve made and tested a great soup recipe and custom formulated some detox supplements to work with it.

For more information click here.

One of the many powerful ingredients in the soup is turmeric.  Even after the cleanse, it is a great thing to use daily this time of year.  It fights viruses and lessens seasonal colds and flu’s.  It is a great pain reliever.  No more stomach or kidney damage from anti-inflammatory drugs.  It also helps protect your liver.  There are lots of ways to use it.  Plain old turmeric straight off the spice rack of your grocery store can give all these benefits.  1/2 a teaspoon daily with meals is a good dose.  Some like to encapsulate this or buy it in capsules.  This dose is roughly 3 capsules.  Some brands concentrate curcumin, which is one of the more active ingredients.

One I really like is called Meriva.  It is a curcumin concentrate in a highly absorbed form.  For many it can work better than Advil and without short term or long term side effects.  Of course turmeric is great in your food also.  Any chicken or fish dish can do well with 1/4 – 1/2 of a tsp of it.  What I love the best is fresh turmeric.  It is a little hard to find, but most Asian supermarkets have it.  Whenever I get down to the Ranch Market at the Chinese Cultural center I’ll stock up and keep it frozen.  It looks just like fresh ginger, but when you cut into it the color is like that of a carrot.  The taste is like dried turmeric but much smoother.  A few grated tsp of it will make your soups extraordinary!

Holiday Detox and Rejuvenation Cleanse (2010 Holiday Season Only)

One simple step to a flatter stomach and better health.  Lose weight this holiday season and save your New Year’s resolution for something else!

Why do you hurt? Two reasons: trauma and inflammation.  Trauma is obvious.  It occurs when you stub your toe, or worse, break your leg.

Here’s inflammation:  Your cells are little motors.  They generate power and waste.  The production of waste creates heat.  This heat is called inflammation.  You make lots of it when you are hurt or sick, but your body also makes some of it all the time. Inflammation is what ages you. The healthier you are and the cleaner you eat the less you make.  The younger you are the easier it is to eliminate it.  The more of it you have, the more you hurt.

Yet pain from trauma and pain from inflammation are not exclusive.  In most cases, inflammation will cause the most symptoms at sites of old trauma.  The knee you hurt when you were younger is the one that inflammation settles in when you’re older.

Two causes of pain, apart from obvious trauma, are too much sugar in your blood and environmental toxins.

You know how bread gets dark in a hot oven?  When your blood sugar levels get too high, it ‘burns’ also.  The process is called glycation; sugars attach to proteins and cells get damaged.  This speeds up the normal wear and tear of your body.  In extreme cases, this is why diabetics lose feeling and circulation in their hands and feet.

Here’s the clincher: sugar does the same thing even when you’re not diabetic, its just slower. These gummed up cells create damage and inflammation.

How do environmental toxins cause pain? Think of cells as little people.  They need to eat and poop.  Toxins give your cells more to eliminate, leaving them unable to eliminate all of their own wastes.  This backlog of wastes creates inflammatory chemicals.

If either of these processes go on for too long, they cause changes in your structure; this is arthritis.  Short of structural change in the joints, this causes pain in your muscles and connective tissues.  When it’s bad enough, we call it fibromyalgia. If it is milder, we call it aches and pains from getting old.

OK, how can you reverse this?  Fasting.  Both poor blood sugar control and the buildup of internal and external wastes can be dramatically reversed by resting the digestive system.  All the energy that you won’t have to put into digesting food will be put to good use in digesting your backlog of wastes.

Before you think about two weeks chanting in a cave, its easier than that.  You can get some of these benefits every day.  Just make a 12-hour gap each day without food.  This alone can dramatically lower inflammation and reverse chronic pain.  Want a bigger dose?  Try a week long cleanse. One simple way is to just eat produce for a week.  Seriously, that’s all there is to it.  Any kind, any amount, but only fresh or lightly steamed produce.

If you’d like some assistance and company, visit www.MyIntegrativeHealth.com for our first annual pre and post holiday cleanse!

Many patien’s try a “gluten-free” diet (wheat free), with great success in treating a variety of symptoms.  The biggest complaint about this type of diet, however, is the desire for pizza.  Here’s a neat alternative that both kids and adults will like!

Rice-Crust Pizza

1 cup Arborio rice

2 ½ cups water

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup (1 ounce) plus 1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1 large egg, beaten

1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

Salt to taste

1 cup tomato sauce

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim milk mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat 12-inch round pizza pan, or baking sheet, with cooking spray.

In medium saucepan, combine rice, water and salt. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, reduce heat, cover, and cook until rice is soft, 18 minutes.

In large mixing bowl, combine hot rice with 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and egg and use fork to mix until well combined. Mound rice mixture in center of prepared pan. With back of fork, spread rice out to cover pan, then make edge neat.

Bake crust until surface feels dry and firm, 18 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, green pepper and garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and pepper and cook until all moisture has evaporated from mushrooms and they are browned, about 12 minutes, stirring more frequently toward the end. Add salt to taste.

Spread mushroom mixture over rice crust. Spoon tomato sauce over vegetables. Sprinkle on basil and oregano, then mozzarella and remaining tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Bake pizza in oven until cheese is melted and starts to brown, about 15 minutes.

Do you have tummy troubles? You are not alone! Digestive problems are very common, in fact after back pain, stomach problems are the next biggest reason someone goes to see a doctor in America. And irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is a main culprit.

Luckily, there are things you can do at home to make your tummy troubles better. As far as dietary changes go, the number one step is to get the right kind of fiber! And number two is avoiding the wrong kind of fiber. We divide fiber into two main categories, soluble and insoluble. That means just what it sounds like. Soluble fiber dissolves in water, so when you put it into a liquid content it will be absorbed and basically dissolve into it. Insoluble fiber does not. (more…)

Symptoms
There are two types of food allergies: immediate reactions that can lead to anaphylaxis, and delayed reactions. Food allergies that cause immediate reactions show up as hives, angioedema, swelling of the throat, and SOB. Most people can easily identify these food allergies from the direct cause and effect reaction.

Delayed reactions to food allergies are often harder to identify as they manifest 1-3 days after ingestion. Symptoms may include headaches, sinus congestion, skin rashes, chronic ear infections, fatigue, moodiness, depression, digestive issues such as constipation and gallstones.

Repeated exposure to food allergens stresses the immune system and can aggravate existing conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, and other inflammatory conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn’s Disease. (more…)