inflammation

Elimination Dieting and Progressive Thiamine Deficiency

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My issues began after the birth of my second child 21 years ago. I would get extreme indigestion for a couple days each month and my skin broke out. This continued for years until I ended up having several rounds of antibiotics. Months later, I developed severe and never ending acid reflux. After struggling for a year, my local health food store owner mentioned the blood type diet and recommended I avoid dairy. The result was magic. Unfortunately, this started a cascade of elimination diets that would set the tone for the next fifteen years.

After eliminating dairy and seeing a resolution of symptoms, at least temporarily, I decided to eliminate gluten too. As with the dairy, the indigestion disappeared temporarily when I eliminated gluten, but other symptoms eventually crept in, including hypothyroidism and bile reflux. I read about a vegetarian diet and decided to give it a try. Again amazing results from removing meat. The bile reflux disappeared.  I thought things were going pretty well, but in these years I started to have other issues: ataxia, fatigue, heat intolerance, numbness and tingling, gait and bladder issues. In addition, I was always starving. I ate a tremendous amount of food each day, but at the same time I was losing weight.

My naturopath had mentioned possible problems with my gallbladder, but I didn’t think too much about it until I had constant pain. It was eventually discovered that I had a non-functioning gallbladder and I reluctantly had it removed, hoping it would solve my problems. I had tried changing my diet to the autoimmune paleo several times, but would always crash after a couple weeks. After surgery, I could eat meat without major issues, but nothing seemed to digest well. I felt like I never really recovered and other issues started to creep in.

My calf muscles would spasm upon standing and I was so weak I was having difficulty walking a block. A year after surgery, I was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, as it matched my symptoms and lesions were seen on my cerebellum and down my spine. The hallmark of PPMS is neurodegeneration without inflammation. The next three and a half years were a quick decline. I quickly became unable to walk unaided, mainly because I was too fatigued and my muscles too weak. PPMS used to be called creeping paralysis and that is exactly what was happening; I was unable to move my arms or legs, my equilibrium was so off that I couldn’t stand without tipping over and I couldn’t look down to even zip up my jacket.

I had really bad edema in my lower legs and feet and they were a nice shade of purple. My brain was easily overwhelmed and not committing things to memory, which left me going in circles. I lost my appetite, but blamed it on my ever changing diet and my fear of eating the wrong food. I would alternate between diets, cutting various food groups with very limited success.

I visited multiple naturopaths, a functional medical doctor, a NUCCA chiropractor and a MS specialist. I have researched endlessly and have a cupboard full of supplements. I had tried B vitamins before but had not noticed a difference. I joined a Facebook group called Understanding Mitochondrial Nutrients and did not think much about the vitamin I needed most, thiamine, until a post by a desperate husband came up in my feed. I began to research thiamine and found I was able to piece together a timeline of my life based on a progressing thiamine deficiency. I am only three weeks into dosing with thiamine (I take 200mg thiamine HCL and 240mg benfotiamine) and a B complex, but it has made such a difference in my balance, fatigue, edema and mental energy. My appetite is back and I can zip up my coat! I am cautiously optimistic, only because I have suffered so much disappointment in the past. I am hopeful that I can make a recovery.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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Glyphosate Induced Obesity?

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Are you struggling with your weight? Are you eating well and exercising but still not losing weight? Well then, it might be time to consider what’s on or in what you are eating or what you are eating eats. Sound complicated? It’s not. An emerging body of evidence shows a strong link between eating foods sprayed with commercial herbicides and eating meats raised on commercial feedlots (that are born and bred on a cocktail of chemicals) and obesity.

After years of eating highly processed and chemically laden fruits, vegetables and meats, the bacteria in our guts shift radically towards a species that emit what are called endotoxins. These endotoxin releasing bacteria induce inflammation, which then shifts a series biochemical pathways that favor fat storage as a protective and compensatory reaction to the steady state of chemicals coming from our diet and the lack of nutrients contained within these foods. Indeed, what we now call autoimmune reactions, the continued elevation in inflammation and antibodies, may be a result of the food we eat (and the other pharmacological and environmental chemical exposures). It turns out, that the constant state of inflammation many of us find ourselves in is the body’s way of trying to clear those toxins.

With obesity in particular, there have been several interesting studies published over the last couple years providing clear links between chemical exposures and fat storage. Whether the body stores fat or uses fat depends upon the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut and that balance is predicated heavily upon nutrient availability and toxic exposures. High calorie, low nutrient, chemically dosed foods, shift bacterial communities that increase fat storage and inflammation. Not only that, but since gut bacteria metabolize dietary vitamins and even synthesize vitamins from scratch on their own, the high fat, low nutrient, chemically laden diet downregulates the vitamin producing bacteria, in favor of the more pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria. This further depletes nutrient stores while enhancing inflammation. The cycle becomes very difficult to end, as anyone struggling to lose weight knows all too well. There is hope, however. New research from disparate sources demonstrates how reducing the toxic load and increasing nutrient availability can re-calibrate fat usage and storage parameters.

Gut Bacteria and Obesity

Just a few years ago, researchers from Shanghai, China identified one of the gut bacterial over growths associated with obesity and published their results in a paper entitled: An opportunistic pathogen isolated from the gut of an obese human causes obesity in germfree mice. Called enterobacter clocae, the endotoxin producing bacteria was found overpopulated in the gut of a severely obese patient who was also insulin resistant, hypertensive and suffered from the array of obesity related health issues. The enterobacter clocae pathogens made up 35% of the total bacterial content in this patient’s gut; a huge bacterial load. Knowing that enterobacter emitted endotoxins and that endotoxins were associated with inflammation and insulin dysregulation, the researchers speculated that a reduction in the enterobacter population would correspond with a reduction in weight and the other health issues. They were correct. With a special diet and traditional Chinese herbs, weight loss and health parameters changed along with the reduction in toxic load. After 9 weeks, enterobacter represented only 1.7% of the total gut bacteria and at 23 weeks, .32%. The total weight loss during that period was 50kg or 110lbs.

Could something as simple as reducing the opportunistic enterobacter via diet be the solution to obesity? To answer this question, the researchers went back to lab and designed an experiment to test the hypothesis, only they did it in the reverse. They asked if enterobacter was a causative factor in obesity, could they induce obesity in mice bred specifically to resist excessive weight gain simply by increasing the bacterial load?

From the fecal matter of the obese patient, the researchers isolated the particular strain of enterobacter clocae called B29. They took the B29 and inoculated four groups of seven, germ-free mice; B29 inoculated plus normal diet or high fat diet and non-inoculated normal or high fat diet. Germ-free mice are a strain of mice that are microorganisms free and raised in isolates. They are resistant to obesity even when fed a high fat diet.

One mouse from each of the inoculated groups died immediately after the inoculation indicating the toxic nature of this bacteria. Remember, this strain of bacteria represented 35% of the original patient’s gut bacteria, likely acquired gradually over the course of lifetime. During the first week, all of the inoculated mice lost weight, again indicating the mounting immune response. Anorexia, is often a sign of illness as the body reallocates resources towards fighting an infection.

Subsequently, and after the immediate anorexic responses, both groups of inoculated mice gained excessive weight, whereas the non-inoculated mice did not. The inoculated plus high fat diet group not only gained significantly more weight but expressed higher levels of enterobacter inflammatory markers and insulin resistance showing an interaction between diet and bacterial growth. The researchers speculate that the high fat diet facilitates the transfer of this bacteria to the bloodstream and increases the systemic inflammatory reaction. The inflammation then shifts the body towards fat storage via a range biochemical cascades meant to fight the infection but that also induces other reactions along the way; reactions we consider hallmarks of metabolic disease including high cholesterol, insulin resistance, liver damage, decreased adiponectin (satiety hormone – low adiponection means one is always hungry) and even increased amyloid A proteins associated with Alzheimer’s. This study, albeit small and in need of replication, shows us that when the balance of good to bad bacteria shifts, obesity is induced. It doesn’t tell us, however, how environmental chemicals in and on food impact this bacterial shift. For that we have to go to a couple other reports.

Nutritional Perils of the Western Diet

The Western diet has become a synonymous with highly processed foods that barely resemble actual food in nutrient and DNA composition. Indeed, in our efforts to produce the largest and prettiest produce, we’ve cultivated out 95% of the genetic variation from food crops; reducing to almost nothing the ~200,000 plant metabolites that provide nutrition. To make matters worse, we have substituted nutritionally rich and diverse crops with ones that originate from plant seeds engineered with bacterial RNA and DNA and are laced with glyphosate, adjuvants and other chemicals. In addition, all commercial meat production relies heavily on genetically modified, glyphosate-doused feed to grow the cattle, combined with prophylactic antibiotics, growth hormones and a cocktail of other chemicals that compensate for the deplorable conditions under which Western foods are produced. The genetically modified, chemically laden food stuffs are then sold to the consumer as fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy or processed even further into other food-like products. From beginning to end of the food chain are exposures to chemicals and foreign bacterial DNA that our bodies cannot accommodate and that provide only limited nutrients.

So, in addition to the direct exposure to chemical toxicants, conventionally grown Western foodstuffs also impair health by reducing vital nutrient content required for even the most basic cell functioning. By disrupting the balance between good gut bacteria and bad or pathogenic bacteria conventionally grown further disrupts nutrient availability while increasing inflammation and the cascade of ill-health is set in motion.

Metabolic Starvation in the Face of Obesity

As we’ve covered previously, every cell in the body requires energy to exist and function. That energy comes in the form of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate or (ATP). The production of ATP requires nutrients as co-factors and for enzyme functioning. Many of these nutrients come from diet and others are produced de novo or from scratch by the bacteria in our gut. Glyphosate grown foods attack both. Glyphosate reduces the nutrient availability of foodstuffs, even in the less processed, presumed healthy fruits and vegetables, while simultaneously killing the good bacteria in our guts. Glyphosate is a potent bactericide that in a perverse twist of design preferentially targets the beneficial bacteria while leaving untouched the opportunistic and pathogenic bacteria, like enterobacter clocae. So while eating a healthy diet might lead to weight loss and improved health outcomes under normal circumstances, when that diet consists of conventionally grown foods, with genetically engineered seeds capable of withstanding the toxic insults of glyphosate and its adjuvants, neither the diet nor the disrupted intestinal flora can produce the nutrients required to enable healthy cellular metabolism. The GM-glyphosate combo induces a state of metabolic starvation and through a number of survival pathways and shifts towards fat storage rather than fat loss as a secondary source of energy.

Critical to this entire equation is the fact that the bactericidal properties of glyphosate disrupt normal gut microflora.  Glyphosate directly shifts the balance of power away from the healthy, vitamin and mineral factories that feed the body’s enzymes and mitochondria, towards more pathogenic bacteria that are resistant to glyphosate and may even feed on it, further evoking metabolic starvation. As the bacterial balance continues to shift, disease appears and inflammation ensues. Those diseases are then treated pharmacologically with drugs that also disrupt gut bacteria, deplete nutrient stores and damage mitochondria. The cascade of ill-health becomes more and more difficult to end using traditional approaches. Moreover, where and how disease appears is as much based upon individual predispositions as it is on nutrition and other exposures, making the complexity of modern illness something modern medicine is not accustomed too. In other words, these diseases do not fit neatly into the one disease, one medication model, and thus, very rarely respond favorably to treatment.

To Lose Weight, Feed the Body What it Needs: Nutrients.

Despite the complexity of the interactions that come together and create the chronic health issues we face today, there is one variable that can be controlled that will mitigate obesity and ill-health directly: eating, or more specifically, what is eaten. The simple act of cleaning up one’s diet, of moving away from processed foods and away from conventionally grown foods towards organics, can have a tremendous effect on reducing the body’s toxic load and subsequent inflammation, weight gain, and disease. Similarly, replacing needed micronutrients so that bacterial and mitochondrial functioning can come back online and switch from fat storage to fat/energy burning will be critical. This will take time, however, and the transition towards health may be slow. Obesity and ill-health did not emerge overnight and they will not disappear overnight. Finally, we have to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all, silver bullet, diet vitamin or diet pill. Each of us adapts to chemical exposures and the lack of nutrition individually and uniquely. So each of us requires a different cocktail of nutrients to move forward. Which nutrients and at what doses should be determined individually and may involve some degree of trial and error. As the Western diet is devoid of critical vitamins, minerals and amino acids, it is likely many individuals are suffering from broad based deficiencies. It is also likely, that restoring what has been absent chronically will go a long way towards health and healing, regardless of one’s particular health issues. So if you are struggling with obesity and other health issues, feed your body what it needs to function – nutrients.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This post was published originally on Hormones Matter on July 28, 2014. 

 

Thoughts on Inflammation, Vaccines and Modern Medicine

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One of the core components of an HPV vaccine adverse reaction inevitably includes some degree of seemingly unexplainable but observable brain inflammation and white matter disintegration. The brain inflammation falls under a number of different names and diagnoses, some are regionally specific, cerebellar anomalies for example, while others demarcate a more diffuse injury including, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), sometimes known as chronic fatigue, multiple sclerotic (MS) type lesions and, the newest and perhaps more prescient among them, a set of conditions designated as Autoimmune/Inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants or ASIA that denote chronic inflammation both centrally and peripherally relative to vaccine adjuvant exposure.

Is the Brain Immune Privileged?

Despite the observance of brain inflammation in many post HPV vaccine victims, many practitioners, and indeed, the FDA and CDC, seem loathe to recognize that an aluminum lipopolysaccharide adjuvanted virus vector might induce a neuro-inflammatory response, leaving patients with little recourse post injury. The difficulties attributing brain inflammation to a vaccine reaction stem from a long held belief that the blood brain barrier is stalwart in its protection against peripheral trespassers.  The brain has long been considered, ‘immune privileged’ having little to no communication with peripheral immune function. Indeed, the perceived impenetrableness of the blood brain barrier is so extensive that brain-body separation might as well be complete, with a brain in bottle and a decapitated body.

Logically, we know this cannot be true. There must be crosstalk between the immune systems of brain/central nervous system and that of the body. How else could we survive if the two modalities were segregated so completely? It turns out, that logic may be prevailing. A decade of research suggests that the long held notion brain immune – privilege is completely and utterly incorrect. Indeed, the immune system not only guides early neurodevelopment (and so mom’s immune function matters) but communicates and affects brain morphological changes chronically. Likewise, signals from the brain continuously influence peripheral immune function.

The immune system appears to influence the nervous system during typical functioning and in disease. Chronic infection or severe illness may disrupt the balance of normal neural–immune cross-talk resulting in permanent structural changes in the brain during development, and/or contributing to pathology later in life. The diversity, promiscuity, and redundancy of “immune” signaling molecules allow for a complex coordination of activities and precise signaling pathways, fundamental to both the immune and nervous systems. 

It should not be surprising then, that nutrient status and toxicant exposures in the periphery, in the body, affect central nervous system function and are capable of inducing brain inflammation and vice versa. And yet, it is; perhaps even more so than any of us realize.

Re -Thinking Brain Inflammation

When one reads through the definitions, research and case reports of ADEM, ME, MS or other instances of brain inflammation, the notion that biochemical lesions in the periphery are linked to observed neuro-inflammatory reactions is far from center stage. Nevertheless, if we can accept the premise what happens in and to the body does not stay in the body, then we can begin to re-frame our approach to brain inflammation. Specifically, we can look at inflammation more globally and ask not only what triggers inflammation, but allows inflammation to persist chronically, regardless of its location. If there is an on-going peripheral inflammatory response, is it not prudent to suspect that a similar response might be occurring within the central nervous system, even if our imaging tools are not yet capable of visualizing the inflammation; even if it is too premature to observe demyelination, neuronal, axonal swelling or other telltale signs of chronic brain inflammation?  I think it is.

Vaccine Adjuvants: A Pathway to Brain Inflammation

With the HPV vaccine, and indeed, any vaccine, the deactivated viral vectors come with a cocktail of additional chemical toxicants and a metal adjuvant to boost the recipient’s immune response, as measured by the increase in post vaccine inflammatory markers. It is believed that without these adjuvants (and data back this up), the recipient’s immune response is insufficiently activated to merit ‘protection’ against the virus. The strength or size of the immune response is then equated with success and protection.

By this equation, an excessive immune response that continues chronically and is eventually labeled ‘autoimmune’ as innate systems begin to fail, is in some way not a failure or side effect, but an example of extreme success; the larger the immune response, the stronger the vaccine. And so, skewed as this observation may seem, within the current vaccine-paradigm there can be no ‘side-effects’, not really. By design, there should be inflammation, even brain inflammation; the more the better. Also by design, metal, lipid soluble, adjuvants cross the blood brain barrier and directly induce brain inflammation. To say vaccines don’t or somehow couldn’t induce brain inflammation is ignorant, if not, utterly negligent, and quite simply, defies logic. Again, for prudence and safety, shouldn’t we assume that an inflammatory reaction in the body might also ignite some concordant reaction in the central nervous system?

Why Aren’t We All Vaccine Injured?

What becomes apparent though, is even with exposure to the most toxic brew of vaccines, not all who receive vaccines are injured, at least observably. (I would argue, however, even those who appear healthy post vaccine, had we the tools to observe brain inflammation more accurately, would show a central inflammatory response, at least acutely, and likely, progressively). So what distinguishes those individuals who seem fine post vaccine, particularly post HPV vaccine, from those who are injured severely and sometimes mortally?

More and more, I think that the fundamental differences between vaccine reactors and non-reactors rest in microbial and mitochondrial health. Indeed, all vaccines, medications, and environmental toxicants damage mitochondria, often via multiple mechanisms, while altering microbial balance. Whether an individual can withstand those mitochondrial insults depends largely upon a balance struck among three variables: 1) heritable mitochondrial dysfunction, genetic and epigenetic; 2) the frequency and severity of toxicant exposures across the lifetime; and 3) nutrient status. Those variables then, through the mitochondria, influence the degree and chronicity of inflammation post vaccine. With the HPV vaccine in particular, the timing of the vaccine, just as puberty approaches and hormone systems come online, may confer additional and unrecognized risks to future reproductive health.

Mitochondria and Microbiota

The mitochondria, as we’ve written about on numerous occasions, control not only cellular energy, but cell life and death. Every cell in the body, including neurons in the brain, require healthy mitochondria to function appropriately. Healthy mitochondria are inextricably tied to nutrient concentrations, which demand not only dietary considerations but balanced gut microbiota. Gut bacteria synthesize essential nutrients from scratch and absorb and metabolize dietary nutrients that feed the mitochondria. Indeed, from an evolutionary perspective, mitochondria evolved from microbiota and formed the symbiotic relationship that regulate organismal health. Disturb gut bacteria and not only do we get an increase in pathogenic infections and chronic inflammation, but also, a consequent decrease in nutrient availability. This too can, by itself, damage mitochondria.

When the mitochondria are damaged, either by lack nutrients and/or toxicant exposure, they trigger cascades of biochemical reactions aimed at conserving energy and saving the cell for as long as reasonably possible. When survival is no longer possible, mitochondrial sequestration, and eventually, death ensue, often via necrosis rather than the more tightly regulated apoptosis. Where the mitochondria die, cells die, tissue dies and organ function becomes impaired. I should note, as steroid hormone production is a key function of mitochondria, hormone dysregulation, ovarian damage and reduced reproductive capacity may be specific marker of mitochondrial damage in young women.

Mitochondria and Inflammation

Mitochondria regulate immune system activation and inflammation and so inflammation is a sign of mitochondrial damage, even brain inflammation. Per a leading researcher in mitochondrial signaling:

The cell danger response (CDR) is the evolutionarily conserved metabolic response that protects cells and hosts from harm. It is triggered by encounters with chemical, physical, or biological threats that exceed the cellular capacity for homeostasis. The resulting metabolic mismatch between available resources and functional capacity produces a cascade of changes in cellular electron flow, oxygen consumption, redox, membrane fluidity, lipid dynamics, bioenergetics, carbon and sulfur resource allocation, protein folding and aggregation, vitamin availability, metal homeostasis, indole, pterin, 1-carbon and polyamine metabolism, and polymer formation.

The first wave of danger signals consists of the release of metabolic intermediates like ATP and ADP, Krebs cycle intermediates, oxygen, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), and is sustained by purinergic signaling.

After the danger has been eliminated or neutralized, a choreographed sequence of anti-inflammatory and regenerative pathways is activated to reverse the CDR and to heal.

When the CDR persists abnormally, whole body metabolism and the gut microbiome are disturbed, the collective performance of multiple organ systems is impaired, behavior is changed, and chronic disease results.

Reducing Inflammation

Instinctively, we think reducing inflammation pharmacologically, by blocking one of the many inflammatory pathways, is the preferred route of treatment. However, this may only add to the mitochondrial damage, further alter the balance of gut microbiota and ensure increased immune activation, while doing nothing to restore mitochondrial and microbial health. In emergent and acute cases, this may be warranted, where an immediate, albeit temporary, reduction in inflammation is required. The risk, however, is that short term gains in reduced inflammation are overridden by additional mitochondrial damage and increased risk of chronic and/or progressive inflammation. The whole process risks becoming a medical game of whack-a-mole; a boon to pharmaceutical sales, but devastating to those who live with the pain of a long-standing inflammatory condition.

In light of the the fact that damaged mitochondria activate inflammatory pathways and that vaccines, medications and environmental toxicants induce mitochondrial damage, perhaps we ought to begin looking at restoring gut microbial health and overall mitochondrial functioning. And as an aside, perhaps we ought to look at persistent inflammation not as an autoinflammatory reaction, but for what is it, an indication of on-going mitochondrial dysfunction.

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Hormones Matter needs funding now. Our research funding was cut recently and because of our commitment to independent health research and journalism unbiased by commercial interests we allow minimal advertising on the site. That means all funding must come from you, our readers. Don’t let Hormones Matter die.

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This post was published originally on Hormones Matter on September 22, 2014.

Easing Endometriosis Pain and Inflammation with Nutrition

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Inflammation is the body’s natural and essential reaction to injury, infection or disease that causes tissue redness, swelling, and the unpleasant sensations of heat and pain. While uncomfortable, inflammation is a crucial first step of the healing process, so it is very beneficial when in control relative to a short term injury or illness. The problem is that many of us are stuck in a prolonged inflammatory state and this protective function spins out of control, like a fire raging in the body. New research is consistently linking countless chronic diseases, conditions, degeneration, and even depression with chronic, low level, systemic inflammation. One of the most fundamental ways we can reduce this excessive inflammation back down to a healthy level is by changing the way we choose to eat.

The Modern Diet Induces Inflammation

Processed, inflammatory and nutritionally-void foods have become the staple of the standard North American diet. Some of the most common offenders are sugar and processed grains such as bread, pasta, crackers and baked goods. Certain oils, including the oils that have been heavily marketed as being “good” for us, such as highly processed oils high in omega 6, such as corn, canola, safflower and cottonseed seed oils are potent inflammatory triggers when consumed in excess. The delicate balance of omega 6 to omega 3 is exceedingly important in regulating inflammation. Of course trans fats like margarine and shortening are the unhealthiest fats of all and should be strictly avoided.  If a food doesn’t grow in nature, chances are it is fueling inflammation and could potentially be making symptoms worse.

Conversely, fresh, whole, unprocessed foods tend to calm inflammation down.  Abundant fresh produce like fresh dark leafy greens, berries, pomegranates, broccoli, and avocados are fabulous anti-inflammatory foods. Flavorful spices like ginger, garlic, turmeric, and good fats rich in omega 3, like wild salmon, raw nuts and seeds such as walnuts, chia, hemp and pumpkin seeds are also often helpful. The essential fatty acid EPA, which is a metabolite of omega 3, is particularly adept at reducing inflammation. EPA is found in foods like wild cold water oily fish like salmon, herring, or sardines and some types of microalgae.

Endometriosis and Inflammation

How does this relate to endometriosis? Endometriosis lesions are like little inflammation factories, pumping out inflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor and interleukins that can cause debilitating pain and scar tissue. The foods we eat contain the building blocks with the potential to fuel both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory states. The everyday food choices we make can help shift the balance to calm down the metaphorical fire, whereas eating the wrong foods will tip the scale against us and throw gas onto the flames. Why would we choose to keep eating foods that just make us feel sick, miserable and make an already bad situation even worse?

Where to Begin

The first step in transitioning to an anti-inflammatory diet is to find a nutritionist or naturopathic doctor who is experienced in women’s health and pelvic pain to design a balanced nutrition program that works for you as an individual. There is so much more to dietary therapy than simply avoiding a generic list of foods. In addition, more often than not there are “forbidden” foods that are well tolerated and “allowable” foods that trigger pain and other symptoms, so it must be personalized rather than a one size fits all approach. An experienced professional will create your specific, individual plan and guide you through the process while ensuring you get all of the essential nutrition you need.

Of course everyone is different, but there are three main components that I typically start with when working with a pelvic pain client. One: eliminate inflammatory foods. Two: eliminate food sensitivities, which are very common among endometriosis patients and three: eliminate endocrine disruptors. From there we determine what each person can tolerate and we further fine tune to address additional factors like interstitial cystitis, painful bladder syndrome, and pain syndromes which also can improve symptomatically with dietary therapy.

How Long Does it Take?

How long does it take to start feeling better?  It depends on the person. Some people can start feeling better within a week or so while for others it can take longer. Personally, I started noticing results in my own endometriosis pain within a month of making targeted dietary changes. If all of one’s dietary pain triggers have been eliminated, one should be feeling a difference within three to six months.

We all have to eat, so it only makes sense to start eating in a way that is going to help us feel our best.

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Hormones Matter needs funding now. Our research funding was cut recently and because of our commitment to independent health research and journalism unbiased by commercial interests we allow minimal advertising on the site. That means all funding must come from you, our readers. Don’t let Hormones Matter die.

Yes, I’d like to support Hormones Matter.

This post was published originally on Hormones Matter on January 6, 2015. 

Heal with Friends Podcast #2: Non-Invasive Treatments for Endometriosis

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Endometriosis affects millions of women worldwide, inducing unimaginable pain and suffering. On average, it takes 7-9 years to diagnose. Once diagnosed, the treatment options for this disease are limited, not always effective and sometimes downright dangerous. There are few endometriosis specialists, less than a hundred worldwide, and very little research funding; leaving women and their families to manage this disease on their own.

In our first Heal with Friends podcast on Fearless Parent Radio, I interviewed our very own Dr. Philippa Bridge-Cook, researcher, writer, endometriosis survivor and fierce endometriosis advocate. Dr. Bridge-Cook walked us through the ins and outs of recognizing and diagnosing endometriosis, the latest research, and treatment options.

For this second podcast, we have brought in two remarkably talented women who are using non-invasive treatment protocols to help patients manage the pain and other symptoms of endometriosis, and perhaps even to reduce the disease progression of endometriosis and other inflammatory disease processes. Erin Luyendyk and Dr. Leslie Wakefield. Dr. Bridge-Cook rejoins the conversation as a patient, having utilized the protocols and services of both our guests with success.

Heal with Friends Podcast Guests

Erin Luyendyk, RHN is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Nutrition Educator, Raw Chef and founder of Nutritionista, and contributor to Hormones Matter. As an endometriosis survivor herself, Erin has developed a passion and expertise in nutrition for women, using integrative nutrition to help manage endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome and premenstrual syndrome. She consults with private nutrition clients and health professionals internationally.  In her latest post for Hormones Matter, Erin writes:

Endometriosis lesions are like little inflammation factories, pumping out inflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor and interleukins that can cause debilitating pain and scar tissue. The foods we eat contain the building blocks with the potential to fuel both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory states. The everyday food choices we make can help shift the balance to calm down the metaphorical fire, whereas eating the wrong foods will tip the scale against us and throw gas onto the flames. Why would we choose to keep eating foods that just make us feel sick, miserable and make an already bad situation even worse?

Dr. Leslie Wakefield MS, PT, CSCS, is a doctor of physical therapy specializing in Women’s Health and Pelvic Rehabilitation. She is the owner of Wellsprings Health, a holistic therapy clinic in Hollywood, Florida, and Director of the Miami Clear Passage clinic. Dr. Wakefield also writes for Hormones Matter. In describing her patients and practice, Dr. Wakefield writes:

As a women’s health physical therapist specializing in pain and scar tissue, I frequently see patients in clinic with intense, often debilitating pain caused by endometriosis. These women have often tried every treatment made available to them:  surgery to cut adhesions and remove endometrial growths, hormone treatments, and symptom control (usually in the form of strong pain killers, anti-nausea, anti-depressant, and anti-anxiety medications). Despite these interventions, some patients report continued or even worsening pain. In the worst cases, their quality of life has been disrupted to the point of suicidal thoughts.

How does it get so bad? It has to do with the chronic inflammation that endometriosis causes wherever it resides in the body.

In chronic inflammation such as endometriosis, this scarring process continues, continuously building scars, or adhesions, that are not needed by the body. As these adhesions form they can limit normal mobility of organs and connective tissue, put pressure on pain sensitive structures, and disrupt the function of the tissues they restrict. 

The manual therapy employed by Dr. Wakefield and other specialists like her can reduce the adhesions, increase mobility, decrease inflammation and the pain associated with it.

Heal with Friends Podcast Topic

The question we ask in this podcast: “Are there non-invasive treatment possibilities that can help endometriosis patients manage their pain and other symptoms?”  Listen in and find out what we learned.

Non-Invasive Treatments For Endometriosis – Episode 56

About Heal with Friends

The Heal with Friends podcast, along with our companion social health site of the same name, Heal with Friends, are about finding health together. It does not matter if you are physician, researcher, parent, or patient, we want to hear from you and learn from your health experiences. When you join the Heal with Friends network, you can share your stories, your ideas, your hard learned and lived wisdom about health and illness. Together we can find solutions to complex health issues.

About Fearless Parent

The Fearless Parent network, is an “innovative online media platform that’s ahead of the pulse for today’s thinking parent.” Like us, they believe in bucking conventional wisdom, in asking the hard questions. Fearless Parent Radio is the ”thinking person’s daily dose of unconventional, evidence-based news about health, wellness, green living, and holistic parenting choices.”

Tune in, join the conversation, and follow us for monthly shows on topics that matter to you.

 

 

Vitamin D3 and Lupus

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The untimely death of 23-year-old Sasha McHale, daughter of professional basketball’s Hall of Famer Kevin McHale, recently shocked the world.

Sasha inherited her father’s athleticism, energy, enthusiasm for life, and love of the northern U.S. state of Minnesota. An insidious disease called lupus prematurely snatched Sasha from her family, friends, and life.

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that attacks the body’s cells, tissues, and organs, and results in severe inflammation, fatigue, and, in some cases, death. The medical name for the most common form of the lupus is “systemic lupus erythematosus” (SLE). According to the Lupus Foundation of America, about 1.5 million Americans, and over five million people globally, suffer from a form of lupus. Ninety percent of persons diagnosed with the disease are women, many of whom are in their child-bearing years.

Mounting evidence suggests adequate vitamin D3 in the body may protect against the development of autoimmune diseases including lupus. Genetic and environmental factors including vitamin D3 deficiency have been linked to lupus. Sensitivity to sunlight, the primary source of vitamin D3, is common among SLE patients. Scientific research indicates a high prevalence of vitamin D3 deficiency among people suffering SLE:

Researchers at the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic studied 124 female SLE patients to understand, inter alia, their circulating vitamin D3 levels. Eighty-four percent of the women had vitamin D3 blood serum levels less than a sub-optimal reading of 32 ng/mL.

The Medical University of South Carolina conducted a study of vitamin D3 blood serum levels of 123 individuals who had been recently diagnosed with SLE. The findings suggested vitamin D3 deficiency as a possible risk factor for SLE.

Researchers studied 25 Canadian women diagnosed with SLE and found that over half of these patients had less than 20 ng/mL of vitamin D3 circulating in their blood. The research also suggested that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a drug used to treat SLE, may inhibit vitamin D3 production.

A study published in a 2012 edition of the journal Dermato-Endocrinology not only documented the prevalence of low vitamin D3 in SLE patients but recommended oral vitamin D3 supplementation for SLE patients. The researchers lauded the safety, low cost, and wide availability of vitamin D3 supplements as well as their potential effectiveness against SLE progression.

Maintaining adequate vitamin D3 levels may forestall the development of autoimmune diseases including lupus. In addition, vitamin D3’s capability to reduce inflammation may alleviate lupus symptoms. Further research is required to confirm the extent of vitamin D3’s connection with lupus.

Copyright ©2012 by Susan Rex Ryan
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