Gut Health

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Before looking at beneficial bacteria and dangerous bacteria in terms of gut health, let’s explore just what leaky gut syndrome is, and whether you are actually at risk of it. The problem with leaky gut syndrome is that it is not actually a medical diagnosis, but rather a term used to describe that something is not going right in your gut, but that it is isn’t clear at all why something is not right. According to WebMD

“Leaky gut really means you’ve got a diagnosis that still needs to be made.”

You state that you are worried about developing leaky gut syndrome. Medical professionals know that it is not a congenital disorder, but rather something that is linked to our lifestyle. As explained by Patients Medical

“Leaky gut syndrome arises from damage to the lining of the digest tract such that it becomes inflamed, enlarged, and more porous.”

It is generally caused by infections, high intakes of caffeine or alcohol, medication, ingestion of toxins and poisons (including contaminated food), dietary intolerance, deficiencies and eating a diet high in sugar or low in fiber. Hence, the first place to start looking if you are worried about leaky gut syndrome is yourself, your lifestyle and your diet.

Keeping good gut health is very important. One of the problems in public perception is that we shudder at the word “bacteria”. It conjures up images of dirty creepy crawlies that infect everything we eat and drink. It is certainly true that there are very harmful bacteria out there, but there are also very beneficial bacteria and they are essential to maintain good gut health. Some 400 different types of bacteria have taken up permanent residence in our gut and they are essential to our health. Science Daily explains that

“They help us digest our food and provide us with energy and vitamins. These ‘friendly’ commensal bacteria in the intestine help to stop the ‘bad guys’ such as Salmonella that cause infections, taking hold. Even the biochemical reactions that build up and maintain our bodies come from our intestinal bacteria as well as our own cells.”

Hence, it is time to stop thinking of bacteria as dirty things, but rather consider them our best friends to maintain good health. Naturally, you do have to know which bacteria are actually your friends and which ones you should avoid. You will probably have noticed on television that there are numerous advertisements for drinks and yoghurts that claim to contain certain bacteria that are supposed to be essential to our gut health. The most common one spotted in advertisements is “bifidus digestivum”. Although this bacteria, also commonly marketed as “L. casei imunitas” is indeed very beneficial to our gut health, it is found naturally in all yoghurt and dairy products. In a report from Science Chat Forum is was noted that

“I have yet to see any independent papers supporting their claim that the DN-114001 strain is more beneficial than the Lactobacillus casei present in my 10-times-cheaper-for-triple-the-volume local brand of yogurt.”

Hence, what matters is not that you buy expensive branded products, but rather that you know where the good bacteria essential for our gut health are found. According to Oprah.com

“Intestinal bacteria is a need to eat, and mounting evidence indicates that beneficial bugs prefer nutrients called prebiotics, which are primarily found in high-fiber foods including onions, garlic, bananas, artichokes, and many greens. Bad bacteria, on the other hand, prefer the sugars and fats found in processed foods.”

What matters, therefore, is that you work on feeding the good bacteria that are already there, and ridding you of the bad bacteria. Maintain a healthy gut – and avoiding leaky gut syndrome – is all about leading a healthy lifestyle, ensuring that the beneficial bacteria occurring in your body naturally continue to fight on your side. Most gut problems could easily be avoided if people spend more time preparing their own food from fresh, rather than purchasing quick, ready-made meals. Ensuring you consume your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day – organic, of course – is also hugely important. Make sure you limit your consumption of alcohol and caffeine as well and consume plenty of fermented raw dairy products such as raw kefir and raw yogurt, particularly if you are lactose intolerant.

©2013 | Shantih Coro
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How to Balance Your pH to Heal Your Body

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BY MARCUS JULIAN FELICETTI
SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 6:57 PM EDT

Some health experts believe that our pH balance is extremely important, others say it is essential, there are a few who clearly state that it is a matter of life and death. The only people who don’t emphasize the alkaline/acidity balance as central to health are quacks that peddle a pharmaceutical pill for every ill, a drug for every bug.

As a naturopath and yoga therapist for over a decade I can say that pH balance is a top priority when I am working one on one with my students. Since most people are too acidic, teaching them how to return to a slightly alkaline state is a major piece of the healing puzzle.

pH stands for power of hydrogen, which is a measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the body. The total pH scale ranges from 1 to 14, with 7 considered to be neutral. A pH less than 7 is said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline. Our ideal pH is slightly alkaline – 7.30 to 7.45. You can test your pH levels regularly by using a piece of litmus paper in your saliva or urine first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything.By including pH balance in my approach to health and healing, through yoga and nutrition, I have seen repeatedly students bodies and minds rebuild on their own from all kinds of degenerative conditions that no one else was able to cure. I have found that addressing an over acidic system is fundamental to bringing the body back to vitality. As you will see it is key to balancing all other systems.

1. Digestive System – Most digestive disorders, such as indigestion, nausea, bloating, gastric reflux, are symptoms caused by excess acid in the gastric region and not enough alkaline minerals in the intestinal tract. If the alkaline minerals from enzyme rich foods are missing then the pancreas will become exhausted, and once the pancreas is exhausted, it loses the ability to decode the food and tell the body what to do with it. This will lead to a degenerative spiral of entropy where organs become confused and inflamed.

2. Circulatory System – Acidity is the principal cause of heart disease. It is well established that many fats are extremely important and essential for cardiovascular health. Good fats can actually help heal the inflammation that underlies arteriosclerosis. When the arteries thicken with plague it is not as a response to good fats, it is inflammation created by the internal acidic environment. The body responds to the acidity by lining the vessels with fatty plaques to prevent life-threatening leaks, which arrest imminent death, but strain the heart because the aperture for the blood to flow through is narrower. When the heart becomes completely exhausted, this is known as a heart attack.3. Immune System – Acidic environments are breeding grounds for anaerobic pathogens whereas the high levels hydrogen of rich body fluids keep bad bacteria inactive. As the great scientist, Antoine Béchamp famously observed ‘The germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.’ Whether bad bacteria and pathogens incubate or remain dormant, all depends on the ratio of cellular pH. The germ theory is a narrow view that has been adopted by the current medical establishment, which conveniently relies on a profitable cut, burn, and poison approach to sickness. Surgery, radiation, and pharmaceutical drugs are an invasive approach that is ineffective because they works against the body’s natural functions to heal itself, and it fails to address the underlying cause and only treats the symptoms.

4. Respiratory System – When the tissues and organs are overloaded by acidity the transport of oxygen is strangled. This suffocation means the cells cannot breathe properly. Every cell in our body needs to breathe new oxygen and to clear acidic carbon dioxide to function correctly. When the ratio of acidity is too high then wastes in the form of mucus and infections and viruses build up in our lungs, which leads to colds, bronchitis, asthma, etc.

5. Skeletal System – Arthritis is one of the most disabling diseases in developed countries. The word arthritis means “inflammation of the joint” and is used to describe pain, stiffness, and swelling in the joints. The two main form of arthritis are Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis. Both forms are related to pH imbalance and accumulation of acid deposits in the joints and wrists. It is this accumulated acid that damages cartilage. When the cells that produce the lubricating synovial fluids and bursa fluids are acidic, this condition causes a dryness that irritates and swells the joints. When uric acid builds up it tends to deposit in the form of crystals, like broken glass in the feet, hands, knees and back. Osteoarthritis is not a ‘wear-and-tear’ condition. Arthritis can be arrested and reversed using a specific protocol that I have developed using alkaline minerals and Yoga.

6. Integumentary System – Commonly know as the skin. When the body’s pH is out of balance then the build up of acid causes inflammation and the skin is less able to function as a natural barrier against infection. As a result, the skin tends to develop lesions and sores open to the surface of the body, and the formation of skin eruptions occur like pimples or rashes.

7. Nervous System – Acidity weakens the nervous system by depriving it of energy. This is also known as ‘devitalizing’ or ‘enervation’. It makes the physical, mental, and emotional body weak.

8. Excretory System – This is also known as the urinary system. It is made up of multiple organs, the main one being the kidneys. The kidneys perform the task of filtering fluids and purifying our blood. If the body is overwhelmed by excess acids, compensatory mechanisms spring into action, one of them is the pulling of alkaline minerals from your bones and dumping them in the blood. If this occurs frequently enough, the minerals build up in the kidneys in the form of painful kidney stones.

9. Muscular System – When acidity increases in the muscle cells, it disrupts the metabolism breakdown of glucose and oxygen to energy. This means muscles perform poorly in an acidic environment. An alkaline system on the other hand allows for much better aerobic metabolism and energy for the body’s recovery from strenuous exercise. I can often observe when someone is acidic from their breathing because they take large gulping inhales while doing the simplest tasks like walking and talking, which suggests their body finds it difficult to adequately deliver oxygen into the cells – a symptom of acidosis.

10. Reproductive System – Still much research is being done to discover the exact link between sexual dysfunction and acidity and also infertility and acidity. Many health experts that claim acidity is correlated with three different disorders in reproductive health:

1. Decreases male and female arousal.

2. Decreases sexual enjoyment and particularly female satisfaction/climax.

3. Decreases fertility and increases the tendency to miscarry.

There are many more diseases and disorders that are associated with an acidic condition – cataracts, osteoporosis, gout, cancer, migraines, constipation, morning sickness, stroke, allergies, diabetes, obesity, etc. With this awareness of how acidity affects us, we can all choose to make informed and empowered healthy decisions for wellness and inner peace through deeply strengthening practices like yoga and nutrition.

Farmed salmon more toxic than wild salmon, study finds

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A study of more than two metric tons of North American, South American and European salmon has shown that PCBs and other environmental toxins are present at higher levels in farm-raised salmon than in their wild counterparts.

Researchers at Indiana University and five other research centers say increased toxin levels in farm-raised salmon may pose health risks to people who eat the economically important fish. Their study, which appears in this week’s (Jan. 9) issue of Science, is the most comprehensive analysis to date of salmon toxin concentrations.

“We think it’s important for people who eat salmon to know that farmed salmon have higher levels of toxins than wild salmon from the open ocean,” said IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs Distinguished Professor Ronald Hites, who led the study.

The researchers applied U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fish consumption advisory methods to determine consumption recommendations. Farmed salmon purchased for the study from supermarkets in Frankfurt (Germany), Edinburgh (Scotland), Paris (France), London (U.K.), Oslo (Norway), Boston, San Francisco and Toronto (Canada) triggered consumption recommendations of one-half to one meal of salmon per month. (A meal is defined as 8 ounces of uncooked meat.) Farmed salmon from supermarkets in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Vancouver (Canada) triggered a recommendation of no more than two salmon meals per month. Farmed salmon from Denver and New Orleans supermarkets both triggered a consumption recommendation of two meals of salmon per month. With very few exceptions, farmed salmon samples tested significantly exceeded the contaminant levels of wild salmon, which could be consumed at levels as high as eight meals per month.

The production of farmed salmon has increased 40-fold over the last two decades, thanks in large part to the world’s salmon farms. Over half the salmon sold globally are raised in Northern Europe, Chile and North America.

While the health benefits of eating salmon have been established by numerous studies, concerns about the fish’s tendency to accumulate toxins have gone largely unaddressed. As fish-eaters themselves, salmon occupy fairly high positions in their food chains. As a general rule, carnivorous animals tend to have higher concentrations of toxins in their bodies than herbivores.

To test this ecological principle, Hites and his colleagues measured organochlorine toxin levels in about 700 farmed and wild salmon. Farm-raised Atlantic salmon were purchased from retailers in London, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Oslo, Paris, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and from wholesalers in North America, Chile and Europe.

For comparison, the researchers collected samples of five wild Pacific salmon species — Chinook, Coho, chum, pink and sockeye — from three different regions in North America. The researchers did not study farmed Pacific salmon or wild Atlantic salmon because fish from the two groups are difficult to obtain.

The researchers analyzed the concentrations of 14 organochlorine toxins in salmon from each collection site, using gas chromatographic high-resolution spectrometry. The toxins they studied were polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, toxaphene, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), lindane, heptachlor epoxide, cis-nonachlor, trans-nonachlor, gamma-chlordane, alpha-chlordane, Mirex, endrin and total DDT. Many of these toxins, including PCBs, dioxins and toxaphene, are “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

When samples from all over the world were grouped, the researchers found farm-raised Atlantic salmon had significantly higher levels of 13 toxins when compared with wild Pacific salmon. Breaking it down by region, the researchers found levels of all 14 toxins were significantly elevated in both European and North American farm-raised salmon when compared with wild Pacific salmon. Levels of only six toxins were significantly elevated in South American farm-raised salmon. Levels of two toxins (HCB and lindane) were actually significantly lower in farm-raised South American salmon than in wild salmon species.

Only PCBs, dioxins, dieldrin and toxaphene were used to calculate consumption safety guidelines, because the researchers deemed these four toxins to most strongly impact human health.

The researchers also found that toxin levels in European farm-raised salmon were significantly higher than in North American or South American farm-raised salmon. Levels of PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin were highest in farmed salmon from Scotland and the Faroe Islands (Denmark) and lowest in farmed salmon from Chile and Washington state, though Hites pointed out that even these comparatively uncontaminated South American salmon had high levels of other toxins.

Hites and his colleagues also measured toxin levels in “salmon chow,” a mixture of ground-up fish and oil fed to farm-raised salmon. They found a strong correlation between the toxicities of chow and salmon, suggesting toxins are passed into the salmon from their feed.

Jeffrey Foran (University of Michigan), David Carpenter (University at Albany), M. Coreen Hamilton (AXYS Analytical Services Ltd.), Barbara Knuth and Steven Schwager (Cornell University), and Amy Matthews Amos (Turnstone Consulting, in West Virginia) also contributed to the study. It was funded by a grant to the University at Albany from the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Environmental Division.

Who Said That Soy Is Good For Us?

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Have you heard of phytic acid? If you had, you probably wouldn’t have the same perception that soy is supposedly good for our diets. Soy has high levels of this kind of acid, which is not neutralized by our traditional Western methods of cooking. This acid inhibits absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc and has been known to cause growth problems in children. Soy actually increases the body’s requirement for vitamin D and vitamin B12, far from being beneficial in the supply of these essentials. Monosodium glutamate or MSG, which most of us have heard of and associate with toxicity, can be formed during the processing of soy foods. Would you believe that there are high levels of aluminum inside as well and you can just imagine what that does to our nervous system!

Phyto estrogens, common in soy, are a disaster waiting to happen when absorbed into the human body. Estrogen is linked with breast cancer, infertility and endometriosis. Soy is also known to be goitrogenic, which essentially means that it will suppress your thyroid regulating ability, which can lead to fatigue, stress and weight gain. Soy will also affect your ability to digest protein, as it is rife with trypsin inhibitors. Get ready for stomach cramps and diarrhea, potential pancreatic problems, as well.

Soy must be fermented in order for us to consume it with any degree of safety. The Asians include soy in the diet, but in relatively small amounts. Unfermented soy is simply not considered by them and they usually only use it as a condiment and not as an essential food. Generations of healthy eating habits have also taught the Chinese and Japanese to eat foods that are high in nutrients and minerals, which counter balance and can counteract the effects of the fermented soy on organs like the thyroid.

Isolated soy protein, is a byproduct generated when a soy bean is turned into oil. It is then included in popular food products such as burgers, milkshakes, ice cream and milk substitutes. Sometimes they are touted as healthier alternatives, for example in the case of a burger, because you avoid all that “red meat” and fats. However, the soy products must taste acceptable to us, or we wouldn’t buy them, so they are loaded with additives, such as MSG and flavorings, in order to make them palatable to our taste buds.

Don’t be tempted to opt for tofu, often linked to soy products, as this is also a nontraditional product that only originated within the Asian markets as populations expanded and demand for the widespread availability of cheap foods exploded.

From allergies to infertility, depression to weight gain, to alcoholism to development problems in children, the dangers of soy are evident, yet are suppressed within our food education system. It’s high time that the curtain was raised on this poor quality food alternative. Let us really understand why the Asian people only use soy in very sparing quantities and disband the myth once and for all that this is a healthy option for us.

©2013 | Shantih Coro
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