Leaking Bowels

Leaky bowels, also known as increased intestinal permeability, happen when the coating of the colon becomes irritated and infected. Your abdominal coating will generally prevent materials from passing through it, but if infected, will not do its job properly. The surfaces of the intestinal tract become permeable or broken. The result of this is that the intestines leak toxins such as fungi, bacteria, fat, waste, parasitic organisms, and partly digested parts of food into the blood vessels.

Due to the body’s defense reaction, food allergies or sensitivities sometimes happen. When your antibodies attack certain food molecules, they look for them to show up once again. After you have taken more of the same food already assaulted by your antibodies, it is recognized as an enemy and attacked again.

Moreover, if a person’s body is constantly creating an auto-immune response, the system rapidly becomes over worked and may exhaust itself. Your colon in fact contains 70 percent of your immune system. This region of the auto-immune system is named G.A.L.T. or gut-associated-lymphatic-tissues. These cells are situated in the coating of the colon and in the abdominal mucous.

Leaky bowel is evident in loads of ways in your system. Those who suffer from Leaky Gut Symptoms frequently grumble skin rashes, bed-wetting, kidney attacks, persistent muscle discomfort and joint pain. A quantity of risky conditions might also happen like pancreatitis, septicemia, milk products intolerance, acne, fibromyalgia syndrome and sometimes even cancer.

Symptoms:

Your body’s defense reaction may also be the source of many of the symptoms of Leaky Bowels. You might encounter stomach ache, pain and extreme gas. Once your auto-immune system becomes weary from dealing with these toxins, you may experience reduced digestive function, low energy, fitful sleep, problems focusing and lack of ability to deal with stress.

Once you have discovered that you are suffering from leaky bowels, you are able to complete the steps necessary to beat it. Simply changing your diet is the simplest way to accomplish this. To do this, you must eliminate certain food from your diet for a month – the foods that usually give the nausea.

What to Avoid?

These foods involve peanut, coffee, citrus fruits, bananas, strawberries, foods with yeast, milk products and chocolate. You should also involve oatmeal, spinach, apple, carrots, beets, lettuce, figs and grapes. During the first month, you may want to also involve pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and pine nuts. As it was your diet that created the issues with your colon, it is sensible that a change in your diet will be what works best in mending you.

Treatments:

Altered intestinal permeability continues to be the main cause and fortunately there are several nutrients and herbal remedies present, that helps to decrease swelling of gut. Stress reduction therapies can be very effective in the treatment. It is essential to recover the healthy ecology of gut.

1. Nutrients like glutamine which is essential for production of intestinal mucus, Vitamin A for generation of antibodies, Zinc for development and treatment of epithelial tissue play big part in treatment.

2. Herbs like Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice, Silymarin or milk thistle, Aloe, Slippery Elm are used more commonly an effectively to heal the damaged lining of intestinal wall.

Mar
3

Fibromyalgia and Your Thyroid

What’s the connection between fibromyalgia & your thyroid?

As I work with clients, I find that nearly all of them have undiagnosed thyroid issues. The most common thing for me to recommend in a consultation is for someone to get a full thyroid panel done by a good doctor who understands thyroid disease.

Why? Many symptoms of thyroid disease overlap with fibromyalgia symptoms. It just makes good sense to check to see if some of your fibromyalgia symptoms, or symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), could be caused by low thyroid.

In addition, thyroid issues could be amplifying your CFS or fibromyalgia symptoms, making them worse than they would be if your thyroid was functioning properly. If it is, then…

Treating your thyroid could improve your fibromyalgia.

Here are some of the symptoms of low thyroid that can mimic fibromyalgia:

Fatigue
Insomnia
Depression
Brain fog
Difficulty concentrating
Sleeping more than average
Muscle pain, especially lower body
Muscle weakness
Pain, stiffness, or swelling in your joints
Increased sensitivity to temperature, particularly cold

Other common symptoms of low thyroid are:

Constipation
Pale, dry skin
Puffy face
Hoarse voice
Elevated cholesterol levels
Unexplained weight gain
Difficulty losing weight
Heavier than normal menstrual periods
Brittle fingernails and hair

There are three things that make discovering a thyroid condition tricky.

First, the most common symptoms of low thyroid look like fibromyalgia.

One down side to being diagnosed with fibromyalgia is that doctors may put all of your symptoms under the “fibromyalgia” heading and not look further for causes. This may be what happens with your thyroid.

If you complain to your doctor that your legs are hurting more than normal, but everything else feels the same, your doctor could very well say, “Your fibromyalgia is flaring up. You must’ve done something different with those muscles.”

However, if your doctor is familiar with the lesser known symptoms of low thyroid, you might discover that your leg pain is due to low thyroid.

Second, your doctor and/or lab may not know about the updated lab standards.

In November 2002, new guidelines were published by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) for what the normal range should be for your thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). Before this revision, a range of 0.5 to 5.0 was considered normal.

However, the AACE found that patients within the range of 3.04 to 5.0 had symptoms of hypothyroidism. (This is one test where the higher number indicates low thyroid function.)

In light of this, the AACE shifted the normal range to be 0.3 to 3.04 – a much narrower range.

According to the AACE, this shift doubles the number of people who are considered to have abnormal thyroid function. The reality is, these folks already had abnormal thyroid function; the test now correctly reflects this, allowing these people to get proper treatment.

If your doctor is still using the old standards, I suggest bringing this press release from the AACE to your next appointment. If your doctor remains resistant after reading the press release, it’s time to look for a new doctor – at least for your thyroid needs.

Third, your doctor may only know how to diagnose basic low thyroid.

In order to properly diagnose some thyroid disorders, such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease where your body thinks your thyroid is evil and tries to kill it, your doctor needs to run a full thyroid panel, not just a simple TSH test. Only by running a full thyroid panel, will a doctor who understands the intricacies of thyroid disease have the information needed to treat you.

Your TSH levels can actually look normal while you are having a problem with your thyroid.

It was the thyroid antibodies that told my doctor that I had Hashimoto’s; one of my clients doesn’t manufacture enough T3 from the T4 in her body. These are things you’d never know by only running the TSH test.

Most MD’s will only run the TSH test. However, your thyroid test should include Free T3, Free T4, and thyroid antibodies TPO/TSI, along with the TSH level if you want to get a complete diagnosis.

Of course, you’ll also need to see a doctor that knows how to interpret these test results! Normally, that means visiting a naturopath. If you need help finding a good one, let me know.

You’ve finally gotten a diagnosis of low thyroid. Now what?

When treating your thyroid, there are two options: synthetic medications or natural glandulars.

Most MD’s will prescribe synthetic medication such as Synthroid or levothyroxine to treat your hypothyroidism. These medications only contain the T4 thyroid hormone. I believe that glandulars are a much better option.

Using a natural glandular, such as Armour Thyroid, gives you both the T3 and T4 thyroid hormones. They are made from pig thyroid, which is similar to human thyroid. However, if you go with a natural glandular, choose Armour Thyroid.

Why is Armour Thyroid brand the only way to go?

I’ve read that many MD’s prescribe synthetics because they think that the natural glandulars are not standardized, meaning that you may not get a consistent amount of thyroid hormone in a natural pill.

Forest Laboratories, the manufacturer of Armour Thyroid, tests both the raw material and the actual tablets, to make sure that you are getting exactly what you are prescribed. Armour Thyroid is standardized.

In addition:

Armour Thyroid is gluten free. The generics are not.
Natural glandulars have been proven to work better on depression than many antidepressants! Synthetics cannot make this claim.
Your thyroid produces both the T3 and T4 thyroid hormones. Natural glandulars contain both T3 and T4; the synthetics most MD’s prescribe do not.
It’s almost always true that natural products are utilized by your body more fully than synthetics.

If you want to read more about diagnosing thyroid disease, Hashimoto’s, and how an undiagnosed thyroid disorder could be affecting you, I highly recommend reading Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? by Datis Kharrazian. It’s an excellent, groundbreaking book about this subject.

Action Steps

Check out the symptoms of low thyroid. Do any of them apply to you?

If they do, make an appointment to talk with your doctor about running a FULL thyroid panel to test your thyroid. Treating your thyroid can make a huge difference in your fibromyalgia symptoms. You owe it to yourself to check this out as soon as possible!

Feb
2

Does Olive Leaf Extract Fight Colds?

Olive leaf extract can help a person fight the common cold as well as a few other unpleasant viruses. When a person mentions that he or she has a cold it usually is associated with some of the symptoms that this condition produces such as coughing, a runny nose, sneezing and maybe some chills. When someone has a fever than that is associated with the flu. All of these symptoms are caused by someone’s immune system trying to eliminate an unwanted visitor.

There are over 200 various bacteria that could cause the cold symptoms however the most popular is something called the rhinovirus. This virus is transported from people and can get into the cells of someone’s nose where it can breed. Then the immune system jumps into action trying to eliminate this invader and causes more mucus to exit the nose which is why someone with a cold has a runny nose. The reason someone with a cold has a cough is because the virus gets into the lungs and mucus starts to be created. Olive leaf is a product that comes from the olive tree which has been somewhat famous through history. Everything from the Holy Bible to the Olympic Games references this plant and has been known not only as peace but as healing medicine.

One of the ways that olive leaf can help wipe away cold viruses is because it can reduce inflammation and microbial. Inflammation is when someone’s immune system damages healthy cells and tissues while trying to eliminate an unwanted bacterium which can cause harm to someone. A microbial is a bacterium that causes disease in a person and can bring about cold symptoms. Another reason that makes this herb a great pick is that it can affect a cold and also flu virus making it unable to reproduce itself which speeds up its destruction so someone can get well.

There are a variety of ways someone can receive the advantage of the olive leaf such as consuming extract, teas, oils and even supplements. One of the easiest ways would be to take a supplement and in particular a multi-vitamin. We recommend a product that has been around for a long time and over 10 years is even better. This way it reduces the risk because if it was a horrible product than it probably wouldn’t be around for so long. Also that it has a certificate on analysis which helps to validate that the ingredients are safe and actually come in the supplement.

Dec
12

The Possible Signs and Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis

MS or Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that causes degeneration of the nerves in the body. Each nerve has a coating known as the myelin sheath. The sheath not only protects the nerve, but aids with the conduction of impulses that travel throughout the body. Multiple Sclerosis causes inflammation that scars, thins out, and eventually destroys the myelin sheath. Once a nerve finds itself without its sheath, it is left with a lesion that causes the nerve to stop functioning properly, in turn the impulses misfire or completely cease. The symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis are manifestation of the unhealthy nerves, and with time they can become really serious and impact the quality of life of the person affected.

Vision trouble is a very common manifestation of the damage inflicted by the disease. Once the optic nerve is affected by the loss of myelin, the person may start experiencing blurred vision, eye pain or issues with the way their eyes process color. At times, some of the vision symptoms can be temporary, but for the people who have suffered extensive damage to their optic nerve, the symptoms can hinder their normal abilities.

The person plagued by Multiple Sclerosis will suffer damage to the nerves in the spinal cord. Once this happens, the person may experience numbness or weakness along their extremities. For some people, the presence of these symptoms indicates that their condition is about to get more severe, and their normal life is going to suffer a big change. They might start taking note that tasks like arm movement, head movement or their walking ability are becoming more difficult to control. The illness may lead some people to depend on a wheelchair, in order to continue with their everyday activities. For others, their facial muscles are the ones that manifest the extent of the damage to their nerves. People may also suffer from hearing issues, urination issues, balance issues or even breathing issues. Dealing with these kinds of symptoms can cause the person to become emotionally unstable, which could have an effect on the way they deal with their physical symptoms.

Oct
10