Monday, April 10, 2017

How to CURE your Leaky Gut!

Well, first off, to cure your leaky gut, stop reading crap on the internet and stop listening to pseudo-scientific proponents of unproven wildly preposterous concepts. There is no proof, no evidence, no medical diagnosis anywhere, of any problem called leaky gut. It's pretty simple, everything that you have heard, have read, heard the TV doctors tell you, is, well, sort of kinda maybe true. It's just that they have blown it all out of proportion and have made mountains out of the tiny moleholes in our guts. 

Realistically, most of the sane internet tells us that of the huge list of symptoms that modern humans are experiencing are the result of this leaky gut syndrome. Everything. From gas, bloating, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes, Autism and all the way up to and including, Cancer. Yeah, a lot to blame on something that barely even exists. A resource that so many use, WebMd states that it's a gray area as even though there is no actual problem associated with this conclusion, that a whole host of other actual diseases can be the real cause of any or all of the symptoms credited with leaky gut. Which, again, there is no evidence it exists. 1  The NHS in the UK is a bit more direct about disclaiming rumors that this is a real thing. 2 Even Dr. Alessio Fasano, the guy whose team discovered the Zonulin protein, states that when the intestinal lining opens with increased permeability, that larger molecules CAN BE allowed through the gut lining. 3 And the works of Keata et al in their paper regarding the in vitro response of rat ilium cells increasing their permeability for flow of liquid through the lining when exposed to gliadinin is probably the starting point for the mass hysteria surrounding this phenomena. 4 
 
 But that's a long way from bits of undigested food, bacteria and even viruses working their way through the huge holes within the gut walls that so many of these proponents of leaky gut claim exist. I've said it before, every scientist out there says it, if digestive fluids, food particles and anything in your intestines leak into your blood stream, you will die. Period. Leaky Gut Syndrome does not exist in the form 'As Seen on TV!!!!' Of course, it does open other possibilities. Namely the work of one Dr. Carl Hulston. His claim is that the increased permeability CAN occur when the gut bacteria get out of whack and that the use of probiotics can shore up the gaps in the lining. 

And I think that is the basis for the huge push to make the world believe that leaky gut is a real thing. Cuz all the stuff I've looked at, tell us to alter our diets (a good thing) stop eating gluten (not necessarily a bad thing) and to buy their specific brands that they either make, or promote and make a profit on when you buy through their website.

Oh. Money. 

Try to remember that at no time, has ANY medical (Real Medical people, not TV Docs nor Internet Gurus) diagnosis for Leaky Gut Syndrome been approved, agreed upon or recognized as valid. It is possible for humans to alter their blood chemistry by the introduction of excess FLUID portions of intestinal contents into their blood plasma. And yes, this can lead to a number of significant problems. Tired feelings, depressed immunity and a few others. If you have other symptoms, you have other things wrong with you.

How do you cure something that doesn't exist yet mimics a myriad of real actual symptoms? That one is simple. Stop eating shitty food. At least HALF of what goes into your mouth should be RAW. Fruits, vegetables, raw. Lightly cooked is okay for part of the other half. Eat fermented foods. A variety of them. NEVER eat sugar, white flour or anything that has listed on the ingredients, a chemical name that is not natural. No soda, no artificial anything.

Is it hard to do? If you are having any sort of problems with your health, it might possibly be because of your diet. And if you are eating any of the crap listed above, then yeah. you betcha, it's going to be hard to stop eating that shit.

There are no Magic Beans. No all encompassing life giving Snake Oil to cure what ails you. You are what you eat. No one makes your choices for you, you do...

Yep.

1 WebMd 
2 National Health Service
3 Fasano

Monday, April 3, 2017

The Secret to Perfect Health - - Eat More Dirt

Sounds weird, and it sort of is. And sort of not as weird as it sounds. If you think about it logically, then we can determine just how doing this, eating dirt, is how we as human beings, evolved. From there, we can look at this process from a scientific perspective and verify just exactly why we as humans need to, not actually eat dirt, but incorporate the activities and foods needed to bring about optimum health.

Dirt. If we examine the makeup of actual dirt, we can see that there are a large number of components. Primary, broken up and very fine particles of rock. This varies by region of course, but the first stage of soil production in any landscape is the weathering and breakdown of the parent structure of rock. Dirt. When we add in organic material, microbes, air and water, we get soil. Soil is a complex living mixture of these things, each and every one of them are required for plants to grow and thrive. 

That should be a reminder to us humans. 

As humans evolved, they ate a variety of things from the landscape around them. Rotting flesh of animals found out there on the savanna, leftover from some larger bigger carnivore kill. Nuts, fruits, sweet leaves from plants growing around. Sprouting seeds and grains, that process of which turns the residing carbohydrates, lectins and phytates within the seeds into sugars (Yes, that's probably why we developed a sense of taste for sweet) makes them taste sweeter. And of course, roots and tubers. Perfectly healthy, good sources for carbohydrate energy needed to run away from those carnivores, as well as fuel for the scavenging needs of the group. Here, let's look at what these early hominids did. They would find the growing plants, recognition of their use from the growing parts. Probably a result of higher brain or evolving brain functionality. Dig or pull up the root. Wipe off some of the dirt, then eat it. 

That process would invariably include lots of the soil the root or tuber was growing in. Dirt.

Yeah, they ate dirt. With many of the meals our ancestors ate, they got big old helpings of rock dust and microbes along with the nutrition from the plant itself. Dirt. The startling thing is, these are things we evolved eating and in reality, are things we NEED to survive, to live a healthy existence. Microbes and minerals. I am hoping that if you are reading this, you know the importance of the human intestinal microbiota within each of us. Our gut bacteria are an integral part of our living systems. That biodiversity of bacteria need to be replenished. Frequently. Ancient evolving humans ate dirt. Later, civilized humans began traditions of fermenting their foods. For preservation, for inactivating some of the toxic portions of the foods (such as lectins in grains) and for flavor as well. Fermenting adds a huge amount of beneficial bacteria to our diets. Something lacking in our modern sterile lifestyles. The additions of chemical substances into our foods and food-like substances manufactured for the majority of the population are for the most part, devoid of any microbial activity. With a few exceptions, notably the FDA recalls of produce, processed meats and a whole host of food-like substances manufactured and then discovered to contain a literal plethora of dangerous bacterial contaminants. Of course the scary part is that when beneficial bacteria flourish, the nasty ones don't. Says a lot about food and food-like substance production. 

So, reason number one to eat dirt. Microbes. Or at least eat some fermented foods.

Minerals. It isn't a secret. It's common knowledge. It's taught to each and everyone of us from way back in the fifth grade. Living cells are made up of a large number of mineral compounds. We need those minerals to live. If we don't get them, cell production will virtually cease. Humans will get sick and die without a steady supply of fresh minerals fueling our bodies. Few minerals (and vitamins as well) and we do not in any way, thrive. That's the way it is. This concept cannot be disputed.

Now comes the hard part. A diet rich in plant material, and some healthy animal proteins, will support optimal health by providing a rich source of minerals. (And of course the needed other stuff, carbs, fats and proteins) That however, is dependent on whether or not the plants, and animals, are themselves rich in the minerals that they need to thrive. Plants grown on rich soils, ones that have a rich diversity of the needed rock dust, organic material and microbes; will themselves be rich sources of vitamins and minerals. Modern farming methods in use today, and being promoted by the manufacturing corporations that control the majority of food production in the industrialized world; use chemical fertilizers to give the three most prevalent chemicals within plants. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. That however, is but a tiny fraction of the number of minerals needed by the plants to grow. And to thrive. This is exemplified dramatically with the current situation in Northern US and Canadian wheat farms. Non organic wheat farms are plagued with Fusarium Wilt making much of the crops unusable, even for animal feed. Whereas organic wheat farmers in the same areas are not seeing any such problem. Healthy soil, means healthy crops, and ultimately the same for humans when we eat those plants. We need a diversity of minerals and in healthy readily absorbable forms. There is a complex system within healthy soils where the microbial life there work to breakdown the rock dust into less complex and more usable minerals. When early humans ate the dirt stuck on their roots, they got a bit of minerals in there boosting their existence. Well, they also got healthy roots as well, grown in pristine soils.

In modern times, we wash everything. And the fact that modern farming techniques use chemicals to kill everything in the soil, (or attempt to anyway) as season after season goes by, the mineral constituents of the soil lessen to the point of that soil not being able to grow healthy plants. That's when the problems like those described above become commonplace. Non organic farms all across the world are suffering from that degradation of soil, loss of minerals and death of the microbial constituent. Dead Soil. The end result is plants, and ultimately the meats raised on those sick mineral starved plants, don't have the necessary mineral (and vitamin) reserves to nourish the humans that consume them. 

Solution two, eat more dirt. Or at the very least, eat good healthy organic plants from farmers markets. Meats raised in sustainable methods and always always, eat healthy food choices. And take mineral supplements as well. 

Our ancestors evolved eating dirt. We can replicate that, and we need to.

Yup