Category: Gut Health

Irritable Bowel Syndrome May Be Both a Chemical and Mechanical Issue

Posted on by Diogenes II

When doctors narrow down and label your gastrointestinal issues as IBS, what they are really saying is, they don’t know what’s wrong with you! You cannot really blame them for being idiopathic — just the small and large intestine alone can stretch out to 27 feet! Finding what is causing your gastrointestinal issues can sometimes be like looking for a needle in a haystack! In this article, we will look at the chemical and mechanical processes that may lead to IBS, and find that needle in the haystack!

Why it’s so hard to heal gut issues?

The gastrointestinal complex is one big hole with a tube from the mouth to the anus. This hole is exposed to the outside world more than any other organ because, we have to constantly put things in it (including toxins). So it’s like a conveyor belt in a manufacturing facility that never gets a rest. To make things more complicated, this conveyor belt has two main hot regions — the stomach (acid) and the cecum. To make things more complicated, hot “lava” a.k.a., stomach acid, often infiltrate the beginning of the small intestine (the duodenum), and food tends to get stuck in the region between the end of the small intestine and beginning of large intestine (the cecum). Furthermore, the door that opens to the cecum often gets stuck, causing waste product to rot at the entrance of the doorway a.k.a ileocecal valve.

Gastrointestinal issues such as IBS do not start in the colon — they start in the mouth. It starts with what you put in your mouth and the pH of your mouth. If your saliva is too acidic (5.5) or too alkaline (7.5), there goes your problem. The gram-positive bacteria in your mouth cannot protect your stomach if your saliva pH is not ideal!

The food that enters your stomach cannot be broken down properly if your stomach pH is not acidic enough (less than 2.5). There are certain proteins, enzymes and factors in your gut that will not be released or will not work properly if your stomach is not acidic enough. These include, the intrinsic factor that releases vitamin B12, and the enzyme pepsin that helps break down proteins in food. Taking alkaline water or antacids like TUMS for acid reflux may make you feel better, but will surely deplete your stomach acid, leaving you vulnerable to bacterial infections and incomplete digestion of food.

As this broken down food moves down further the gastrointestinal tract, it encounters chemicals. One of the first chemical is bile from the gallbladder, used to alkalinize the acidity from the food coated with stomach acid. Bile release is activated by the existence of stomach acid. Thus low stomach acid equals low bile release. The next is sodium bicarbonate from the pancreas, also used to buffer food blessed with stomach acidity. Pancreatic enzymes are also released to further bread down food, namely pancreatin and protease, to help break down proteins further; lipase, to help break down fats; amylase, to help break down carbohydrates, and cellulase/hemicellulase, to help break down fiber.

Now this processed food or chyme now enters the first, second and third parts of the small intestine, called the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, respectively. There, an extraction process goes on, releasing minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, fatty acid and other nutrients into the bloodstream through Intestinal finger-like projections called villi.

The remaining undigested food is welcomed at the door of the large intestine, called the ileocecal valve. Sometimes this door (that leads to the cecum) does not open all the way. This fully unopened door can sometimes make undigested food feel a little unwelcomed, causing some of it — because of waiting too long — to rot at this junction. This cascade of ileocecal valve incompetence may lead to all manner of evil: abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation and the birth of bacterial overgrowth.

The food that gets by the ileocecal valve on a timely fashion enters the acidic cecum. Some label the cecum (the beginning part of the the large intestine) as a second stomach, because of the high heat and acids it produces as food travels up the ascending colon.

In the colon, bacteria ferment undigested proteins, carbohydrates and fiber, producing the release of many gases, including hydrogen, carbon dioxide, sulfide, methane and ammonia. Much are recycled, while others are treated as waste product to be excreted.

Bacteria primarily in the colon also breaks down fiber from carbohydrates to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) — including acetate, propionate, and butyrate  — that nourish and keep colonic cell wall heathy and functional. Other SCFAs include formate, valerate, and hexanoate that are produced in lower amounts.

Water is also extracted from this undigested food and recycled back into the body. If there is some type of dehydration, for whatever reason, the result may become a mechanical issue, known as constipation!

Constipation

Diarrhea should not be labeled as the opposite of constipation — it may actually be a dramatic form of constipation, resulting from watery stool flowing pass impacted stool (or fecal impaction) too hard to move. The closest, official name for this diarrhea system may be called: paradoxical diarrhea.

There is acute constipation and there is chronic constipation. Acute constipation only lasts a short period of time throughout one’s life. But chronic constipation may persist for years, even decades. Chronic constipation can lead to other mechanical digestive malfunction, even after the initial constipation situation is resolved.

The devastating effects of chronic constipation:

During chronic constipation or even after it is resolved, almost permanent damage may be done to certain muscular system throughout the colon. It is called anismus aka dyssynergic defecation, specifically paradoxical puborectalis contraction (PPC). What all this means is the muscles of the rectum don’t work — they are unrelaxed and stiff. All of this appropriately falls under an umbrella term called: paradoxical puborectalis syndrome (PPS).

Paradoxical puborectalis syndrome

At the base of the rectum is the control center that regulates all gastrointestinal and urinary activity. It is called the pelvic floor muscles, with a huge sling-like muscle called, the puborectalis.

Many people who suffer from gastrointestinal issues from chronic constipation may have a tight, stiff puborectalis, and not even know it.

Paradoxical puborectalis syndrome encompasses not only a dysfunction of the puborectalis, which is the involuntary contraction and tightening of this muscle when it should be relaxing to allow bowel movement, but also the associated symptoms like bloating, straining, incomplete (stool) evacuation, tenesmus, rectal discomfort and self consciousness caused by this dysfunction.

Treatment for paradoxical puborectalis syndrome:

First, to confirm PPS, you must see a pelvic floor specialist at the PELVIC PHYSIOLOGY CENTER and perform what is known as Anorectal Manometry. If PPC is confirmed, then a series of EMS Biofeedback training may be implemented to retrain and relax the puborectalis muscle. Additionally, a pelvic floor physical therapist may be recommended to teach relaxation and stretching techniques which target the pelvic floor muscles.

The success rate of the aforementioned techniques is either unknown or very low!

May Be Better Options for PPS:

PPS like most syndromes may be hard to figure out and treat. But these are the recommendations I’ve personally seen and studied success in:

  1. Intimate Rose Vibrating Pelvic Wand
  2.  Sea Buckthorn Oil suppositories 
  3.  Heather’s Tummy fiber
  4.  Various herbs: Andrographis, Punarnava and Bhumi Amalaki

An extreme medical procedure for PPS:

Upon medical request, Xeomin injections into the puborectalis muscle, must be done by a qualified practitioner of botulinum toxin type A — with sufficient hours of experience.

Simply put, this procedure temporarily weakens or paralyzes puborectalis muscle by blocking the release of acetylcholine. This, in turn, relaxes that muscle, and makes bowel movement easier and more complete.

Xeomin® is a purified form of botulinum toxin type A, which lessens the chance of allergic reactions, compared to BOTOX®, which is composed of a mixture of proteins.

Xeomin is a neurotoxin. Please read safety study: click here

Stunt Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Forever

Posted on by Diogenes II

 

Understanding gastrointestinal issues is in its infancy stage for BOTH medical doctors AND functional medicine. My gastroenterologist told me it may take another decade before her profession gets a grasp of it. And that includes bacterial overgrowth, specifically Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). In this article, I will discuss what SIBO is, how and why it is formed, current methods used to treat it; and what we need to do to stunt it, forever!

How is Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth formed?

The three macronutrients the human body needs to maintain structure and energy are: protein, carbohydrates and fats. Of these three, one stands out in terms of SIBO development. When the gastrointestinal system cannot break down this certain nutrient in the intestines — in simple terms — it rots! That nutrient is called: protein — specifically, animal protein, like beef, fish and eggs. If the small intestine cannot break down these proteins into smaller digestible molecules called amino acids, then these undigested proteins leave the small intestine, then pile up in the large intestine. The body cannot do anything with these undigested proteins and is forced to either expell them through feces or break them down into a more desirable component. That is where bacteria comes in to play. The more abundant the protein pile up, the more the bacteria needed. If these proteins become unmanageably large in accumulation, then bacteria in the large intestines will proliferate. If these proteins back up into the small intestine, from whence they came, then bacteria is forced to follow. This sequence of events is what has become known as: Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth!

Why is Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Formed?

If there were no bacteria in the intestines, mankind would cease to exist. Intestinal bacteria has a strange way of keeping us alive. When the large intestine breaks down the protein we consume, nitrogen is released in the form of ammonia as a byproduct. It takes ammonia/nitrogen to build protein — and it takes the release of ammonia/nitrogen to free protein into its smaller amino acid component. This ammonia under ideal circumstances is then transported to the liver via the portal vein, to be processed.

The liver then uses a process called the urea cycle to convert ammonia into urea, which is then processed by the kidneys and excreted in urine.

However, this process does not always go as planned.

If the liver is damaged, it cannot effectively process and turn ammonia into urea, leading to a buildup of ammonia in the blood — a condition that can lead to severe ammonia accumulation, called hyperammonemia. A build up of this ammonia can actually lead to brain injury, and even death!

Now comes Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth to the rescue! Bacterial Overgrowth is actually a defense mechanism the body uses to prevent injury or death from high ammonia! Instead of being called Bacterial Overgrowth, it may be more appropriately called Bacterial Necessity!

This then causes hydrogen and methane gases to raise in the small intestine and colon, to buffer excess ammonia. In fact, there are three common tests to check for SIBO:

Hydrogen dominant SIBO

Methane dominant SIBO (n.k.a. Intestinal Methanogen Overgrowth [IMO])

Hydrogen sulfide SIBO

As these names imply, hydrogen, methane and sulfide gases are produced and increased in the intestines due to bacterial, methanogen and even fungal activity. In fact, there is even Small Intestinal and Large Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth (SIFO/LIFO).

There is always a balance between bacterial and fungal ratio in the intestines just as there is in our soil.

So hydrogen is produced in the colon, but instead of being recycled back into the rest of the body as an antioxidant — which is what it should be doing — much of it is being used to fuel hydrogen dominant bacteria. Sulphate-reducing bacteria ((SRB) will use bile from the gallbladder and sulfur from our diet to produce hydrogen sulfide. Methanogens (anaerobic archaea, not bacteria) both in the small intestine and colon — often associated with bloating and constipation — turn existing carbon dioxide into methane.

Then doctors use this excess hydrogen and methane production in the intestines to diagnose SIBO. It is called the hydrogen breath test — such as the trio-smart breath test — which introduces glucose or lactulose into the gut to stir up and determine if the levels of these gases rise unusually high.

How do doctors and functional medicine treat SIBO?

If you are diagnosed with SIBO, doctors will quickly try to treat the symptom rather than the cause. A combination of antibiotics is introduced — the most popular being Rifaximin and Neomycin. They may also prescribe Metronidazole, which systematically affects the microbiome not only of the gastrointestinal tract, but of the entire body. They may also prescribe medication such as Fluconazole to treat fungal overgrowth — a medication known for causing liver damage.

Functional medicine is not much different — they use a combination of natural antibiotics to treat the symptom rather than the cause. These include: allicin, oil of oregano, caprylic acid, monolaurin, grapefruit seed extract, pomegranate husk and a product called Atrantil, specifically designed for methane dominant SIBO.

How to stunt Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth forever?

Before even thinking about restoring microbiome, we must first make sure the back door is opened! That back door has a simple name — it is called, the anus. 

If you are chronically constipated, stunting  SIBO would be next to impossible. This is where peristalsis, the migrating motor complex (MMC) that pushes food from the small intestine to the large some every 90 minutes during fasting, and fiber, come in to play.

If your liver is damaged, stunting SIBO will also remain next to impossible, since a proper functioning liver is needed to turn ammonia into urea, for excretion by the kidneys and bladder.

If there is any congestion or chronic inflammation of the intestine, colon, urinary tract system or reproductive system (such as endometriosis), stunting SIBO permanently will also be next to impossible.

If you have chronic constipation, see: Healing Chronic Constipation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome May Be Both a Chemical and Mechanical Issue.

If there is liver damage (just assume there is!), see: Deflate Fatty Liver disease.

If there is inflammation and/or congestion, see: Out Ulcerative Colitis Fire Forever and, other topics soon-to-be announced.

Out Ulcerative Colitis Fire Forever!

Posted on by Diogenes II

 

Science defines Ulcerative Colitis as an incurable, autoimmune, chronic, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). I have no idea what they are talking about — do you? I do agree that it is an inflammatory condition, often affecting different parts of the colon — but I have no idea what the phrase “autoimmune disease” means, and neither do they! In this article however, I will discuss that UC is much more than that and the ways to out the fire forever!

Ulcerative colitis is a devastating condition — when you hear inflammation of the rectum and colon, what that really means for some people is pain all over, abdominal cramps, loss of appetite, fever, fatigue, weight loss, bile duct scarring and intermittent bloody diarrhea! Some in desperation have tried fecal transplant from healthy donors in order to restore their own healthy microbiome. What ulcerative colitis really is is stress on fire — your stress level is so high, it’s setting the colon on fire. This could be physical, emotional or metabolic stress. When it is metabolic stress, combined with physical stress, HCL, stomach acid, is leaking into the intestines without being diluted by the bile from the gallbladder and the sodium bicarbonate from the pancreas. Both bile and sodium bicarbonate neutralizes stomach acid because they are alkaline. But in the case of ulcerative colitis, this process is greatly compromised, creating an abnormal acidic environment.

To heal ulcerative colitis is like healing histamine “intolerance “. Even microwave food may cause flare ups. Fermented foods will definitely cause flare ups. Cabbage juice will most likely cause flare ups. Eggs, dairy, onion, garlic and black pepper will cause flare ups. Even taking certain supplements will cause flare ups. Of course, toxins from hot plastic bottles and forever chemicals will cause flare ups. Vegetables should be mostly cooked…fruits should be taken away from other foods to prevent fermentation.

The hydrogen/sulfur connection

Ulcerative colitis can happen when there is a dysregulation of hydrogen and sulfur. We don’t hear about hydrogen being talked about often, nor sulfur. But hydrogen is everywhere — in stomach acid, in water, food and particularly in the colon, where it interacts with fiber and short chain fatty acids and is recycled back into the body. A dysregulation causes hydrogen to turn into the inflammatory hydrogen peroxide. Sulfur is also needed for cellular metabolism and waste clearing. There is even a medication called sulfasalazine used in UC.

So Ulcerative colitis can be compared to a volcano. The primary gases in a volcano are water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), various forms of hydrogen, like hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) — essentially the same gases involved in UC. When there is a pressure build up of gases within the crater, then there is a volcanic eruption 🌋 When there is a pressure build up of gases from toxins in the colon, then there is an Ulcerative colitis “eruption”!

A dysregulation of hydrogen and sulfur is caused by a dysfunctional gut, liver, spleen and pancreas, not able to metabolize nutrients in food properly. Thus calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc and iron become nothing more than toxic metals, rather than the minerals they are suppose to be. Now we have inflammation of the colon and bloody diarrhea.

To heal, we need to fix the gut, liver, spleen and pancreas, and we need to make nutrients act like nutrients again.

This may be done by introducing controlled and pure hydrogen back into the body or the things that supports hydrogen production. It also includes adding sulfur without making it turn into the dreaded hydrogen sulfide.

Five great products I will recommend to do all these things are:

– Hydroxocobalamin (a B12 that contains hydrogen). It also turns hydrogen sulfide back into sulfate. For temporary use only!

– Hydra Shot by Healthy Hydration (a water machine that generates hydrogen while simultaneously removing toxins).

– Sulfur. But not just any sulfur — it must be 99.9% pure organic sulfur crystals (MSM).

People are afraid of sulfur because of sulfur sensitivity, but that is due to being low on molybdenum to break down sulfur properly. Foods high in molybdenum that you can include are: black beans, roasted sesame seeds, organic oats and durian.

– Clostridium butyricum (a bacteria that turns into SCFA and postbiotics in the colon). UC patients’ microbiome diversity is decreased by some 25% compared to healthy control. Butyrate from the bacteria listed above is the main source of energy in colonic epithelial cells, acting as a short chain fatty acid that feeds all microbiome in the colon.

– Anaerobityricum hallii (another butyrate producing bacteria, providing nourishment to the colonic cell wall and microbiome.) May break down acetate, lactate and glucose which then creates butyrate and hydrogen as the final byproducts for the colon.

 

Ulcerative Colitis is not a digestive issue

Inflammatory Bowel disease (IBD) is actually more than digestive disorders. In fact, they are not digestive disorders at all.

Hidden in the literature of science is that fact that all IBD affect somewhere else, or even started somewhere else. It is called:

Extraintestinal Manifestation (EIM)

What does “extra-” mean? Now what does “Manifestation” mean? In the case of UC, it means:

Blood!

Yes, Inflammatory Bowel diseases are blood issues — not digestive issues. That is why Ulcerative colitis is associated with anemia. Yet UC is manifested in an explicit way in gastrointestinal terms — but that does not mean it’s a gastrointestinal issue.

Ayurveda knew this all along!

That is why they emphasize herbs, to purify the blood.

It is this toxic and acidic blood, filled with micro-plastic, glyphosate, unbound iron, heavy metals and other things that are passing through many organs. That is why there is joint pain, resembling rheumatoid arthritis (or is it?); that is why there is inflammation and enlargement of the spleen, inflammation of the pancreas, liver, skin and eyes; scarring of the gallbladder and lungs. And that is why there is inflammation of the colon! An Ulcerative colitis colon can be 1000 times more acidic than normal!

There are at least six herbs ayurveda emphasizes to heal Ulcerative Colitis, namely:

Punarnava: very effective for UC and cleansing the blood and entire body

Andrographis: Andrographis paniculata acts as a bitters, which helps free the liver of stones and sludge. Gallstones are a major cause of UC.

Guduchi: reduces uric acid, and both alkalinize and detoxify the body

Manjistha: an Ayurvedic herb, will prevent the stomach from spilling undiluted HCL into the colon. It also helps alkalinize an overly acidic colon.

Turmeric: an ayurvedic herb that helps reduce unbound iron, and reduces inflammation.

Ginger: enhances the effectiveness of these other herbs.

 

Frozen or freeze dried Spirulina

As if all that wasn’t enough (or was it?), we have to add Spirulina! Spirulina acts like a sponge, mopping up toxins and anything undesirable that would foster the conditions necessary for UC to exist. While there is limited studies, Spirulina contains phycocyanin, a compound with strong anti-inflammatory effects, which may help reduce intestinal inflammation, a hallmark of UC. For temporary use only!

Where can you get frozen or freeze dried Spirulina?

SpiraVeg Spirulina

 

Tests to confirm Ulcerative colitis include: colonoscopy or (the less invasive) sigmoidoscopy, with tissue sample. Another reliable test is: stool calprotectin. All of these will examine and confirm the level of inflammation.

Histamine Intolerance Defused

Posted on by Diogenes II

Do not be fooled — our body needs histamine.  We need histamine to help secrete stomach acid, to contract the lungs, gut wall and uterus, to dilate blood vessels so as to manage blood pressure and nutrient distribution. Histamine is involved in the sleep-wake cycle, to keep us up and alert. We also need histamine to act as a neurotransmitter [message communicator] for the brain and to improve all brain function. And we need histamine to activate and regulate the immune system to facilitate tissue repair and wound healing. Histamine is like a fire — the problem with it though is when it is lacking its deactivator, such as DAO and HNMT enzymes, to out the fire. Here, we will discuss the bad and the ugly of this histamine intolerance. We will also discuss the ways to put out the fire.

Histamine is a neurological messenger that awakens your immune system. It reacts to infections and pathogens first, then tells your immune system to do something. How does it work? It alerts cells responsible for distributing water throughout the body of places where there is dehydration. It does this by raising the temperature of the certain region\tissue, thus causing heat and regulated inflammation. This regulated inflammation then causes the body to rush water/hydration to the infected area. Thus you may develop diarrhea if it’s in the colon, runny nose if it’s in the sinuses, and swelling of the brain (aka migraine) if it’s in the head. Being histamine causes dilation of the blood vessels, you may also develop flushing, skin rashes; and also other unspecified uncomfortable reactions, such as gastrointestinal issues and irregular periods.

There may be no such thing as histamine intolerance. The body loves histamine, and could not survive without it. Calling it histamine intolerance is like calling too much water in the body “water intolerance”. What it really should be called is histamine overload or histamine dysregulation. After histamine is activated, certain enzymes are suppose to clear it out (DAO, HNMT, MAO) to prevent it from building up. DAO works extracellular with minerals to clear excess histamine from food and the tissues. HNMT works on an intracellular level, clearing histamine that the body produces from within the cells. MAO may work as a backup to the HNMT enzyme. When these enzymes are defected, then histamine overload or dysregulation is the result.

But where does histamine comes from?

Histamine is found ready-made in certain foods or is created from an essential amino acid also obtained through the diet called histidine, to create L-histidine. This histamine is then formed and stored in a type of white blood cell called mast cell, found in tissues. It is also stored in another type of white blood cell called basophil, found in the blood. These mast cells are found in connective tissues throughout the body and awaken to allergens, infections or tissue damage. When these mast cells burst, they release their capsule-like, granule-filled content, including: tryptase, heparin, cytokine and histamine.

The three main causes of histamine to be overly-activated in the body is most likely from:

1. chronic dehydration

2. toxins building up 

3. pathogenic proliferation.

Causes of chronic dehydration may be from:

➡️ Kidney malfunction, not excreting metabolic waste, causing excess chlorine production.  This may be due to inadequate potassium and magnesium in the cells and excess sodium outside of the cells, causing a loss of both intracellular and extracellular fluid. This then causes widespread dehydration throughout the body, including mineral loss

➡️ Kidneys, small intestine and thymus THEN does not produce enough DAO to clear out excess histamine

Causes of toxins building up may be from:

➡️ Fatty liver, accumulating stones, thus unable to clear out toxins. Then cholesterol gets stuck in the liver from a lack of hydration, and from a lack of the hydrating fluid bile. This then causes gallstones to develop, congesting the gallbladder.

Causes of pathogenic proliferation may be from:

➡️ Heavy metal toxicity within all systems, especially unbound iron, aluminum, mercury and lead, providing a feeding ground for bacteria from food and within the gut

Thus we develop an overproduction of hydrogen peroxide, which creates more inflammation and a sensitivity to certain high histamine (or histamine liberator) foods, including those susceptible to bacteria:

➡️ Eggs

➡️ Dairy (such as milk and aged cheese)

➡️ Fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kombucha and kefir

➡️ Certain fruits like avocado, tomato, eggplant, strawberries, citrus, kiwi, banana, pineapple, papaya and even dried fruit

➡️ Certain vegetables, like cauliflower and spinach

➡️ Certain grains, seeds and beans, like corn, peanuts, kidney beans and soy

➡️ Leftover food

➡️ Spoiled seafood like fish

➡️ Alcohol such as red wine and beer

In fact, many people who suffer from small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) may actually be suffering simultaneously from histamine overload,  causing a rise in hydrogen dominant SIBO from excess hydrogen peroxide production. This is because SIBO consumes the DAO enzymes layered on the intestinal wall, causing the inevitable proliferation of histamine.

Taking antihistamine (H1 and H2-receptor antagonists) stops the inflammation caused by histamine, which if done habitually, may be a dangerous thing. If your body wants something to be inflamed, it is doing so for a good reason. Stopping that process may lead to malignancy in the years to come. Antihistamine also causes dehydration, including drying of the mucus on the  membrane — the very thing histamine is trying to correct. Another reason is that antihistamines (particularly first generation) make us drowsy because histamine is involved in the sleep-wake cycle, and depleting histamine in the brain by taking antihistamine, disrupts that process.

Natural antihistamines include stinging nettle and food-source quercetin.

So what will defuse histamine overload?

The number one reason why histamine is activated is because of dehydration and a lack of supporting nutrients. Simply hydrating properly with the right minerals and vitamins should correct the symptoms quickly. But there may be other issues, such as liver congestion, toxins and bacterial proliferation. These other issues will take time to correct.

Being that histamine raises inflammation, that means the body is low in certain minerals and vitamins, like magnesium and vitamin B6 (P5P). Vitamin B6 is an important co-enzyme of the DAO enzyme. It also increases magnesium’s absorption into the cells. Magnesium helps do the job for histamine without the need of raising histamine, like widening blood vessels, to remove toxins and increase nutrient absorption. Furthermore, other food sources high in the other B vitamins help P5P do its job better. Natural vitamin C found in acerola or amla will also speed up internal healing of damaged tissue; and it contains copper too, which is a fantastic healer of damaged cells.
To clear the body of excess toxins, you may try IP-6 with inositol, along with a good brand of modified citrus pectin, in the morning on an empty stomach, or at night, on an empty stomach, away from food, for a few weeks or months. (IP-6 should be used with care. Modified citrus pectin binds to toxins, and takes them out of the body, through the intestines.)
To help speed up healing of the liver, Bhumi amla and kutki will do the trick.
You may also try DOA enzyme supplements, 15 minutes before meals, to deactivate histamine overload.

So in summary, to fix histamine overload, try:

➡️ Drinking more nutrient dense fluid such as pure, sugarfree coconut water, or mineral water such as spring water

➡️ Magnesium (glycinate/malate/taurate)
➡️ Vitamin B6: P5P
➡️ Natural B vitamins: Organic bee pollen/Nutritional yeast
➡️ Natural vitamin C: Acerola or amla

To remove toxins, try:

➡️ [IP-6 with inositol

➡️ modified citrus pectin, (such as Pectasol) on an empty stomach, away from food, day or night]

To decongest the liver and gallbladder, try:

➡️ Bhumi amla

➡️ Kutki

To deactivate histamine overload, try:

➡️ DAO supplement

To help eliminate pathogens, try:

➡️ Organic Pau darco (tea) — inner bark only

➡️ Avoid spoiled or leftover food

Additionally, you may try:

⏺ one ounce of grass fed kidney and liver (from chicken or beef) per day for the DAO, vitamin A and copper content.
⏺ pycnogenol to distribute fluid evenly throughout the body
⏺ Natural antihistamines include stinging nettle and food-source quercetin.

Belly Fat: The Root Cause

Posted on by Diogenes II

 

When your stomach is permanently bloated with ‎belly fat, think the worst, but hope for the best — you may have fatty liver. Fatty liver is a serious condition since a healthy liver is of vital importance to overall health. If the liver and its bile storage sac — the gallbladder — are clogged, then every other organ is affected — every other organ is clogged. Even the blood is clogged.

I have been looking like I was pregnant since I was 3 years old. I always had a hard, bloated stomach — and I always suffered from chronic constipation because of stress, a dysfunctional family, bad grades, poverty and loneliness.
I surprisingly overcame my constipation at the age of 20 simply by taking vitamin B1 (50 mg) for four days. Wow!!!

But the bloated, hard stomach continued. I realized I had damaged my liver and intestines almost permanently with the stress and bad choices I had made.
Insulin is a major cause of belly fat, visceral fat, fatty liver, ascites, or whatever you may want to call it. But I would like to add something else.

Our small intestine is long — very long. Ranging from 9 feet in length, up to 34 feet; but typically between 15 to 20 feet in length. If there is a traffic jam, guess what? Big problems. So I’ve learned if there is something wrong with the stomach, then there is something wrong with the liver, the gallbladder, the bile duct, the pancreas, the spleen, the intestines, the blood, and the lymphatic system. Wow! Where to start then?

Recently, I’ve been noticing a lot of products sold within the United States is enriched (wheat) flour, meaning fortified with iron, meaning synthetic iron filing, meaning rusting the organs. Could these synthetic iron filings be causing a disruption in the gut? Could it be damaging the pancreas? Could it be one of the causes, if not the main cause of insulin resistance, and thus belly fat? Could it be that we have too much free iron in us, wreaking havoc, in us?

A chronic bloated stomach, or belly fat, is a blatant indication that your internal organs are not working properly. Your endocrine system and the hormones it produces are not working properly. Your process of detoxification and elimination are compromised. Your lymphatic system, which can also be regarded as a drainage system, is most likely clogged somewhere. The lymph nodes may be even building toxins and becoming swollen. In severe cases, your blood may become so toxic from metabolic waste backing up, that it may have no choice but to use your own skin as a source of dumping site. Thus you develop the manifestation of skin disorders: psoriasis, eczema, acne. And the list goes on.

From personal experience, soft belly fat may not be that dangerous. It could simply be fat accumulation, namely subcutaneous fat, caused by hormonal imbalance. However, if the belly fat is hard and bloated, that may be indicative of something more serious. It may indicate small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), or something like too much insulin in the blood! Even more troubling, it may indicate visceral fat, meaning, fat is accumulating around the organs, vital organs — especially the liver. The liver is a living organ that needs space, and needs to breathe. Fat accumulation around this organ is sinister, filled with carbon dioxide, toxins and metabolic waste. This type of fat stifles the liver, and prevents it from performing its vital duties.

When the liver is stifled and prevented from doing its duties, the blood takes a hit. It becomes thick and dirty. When the blood loses its vitality, the lymphatic system takes a hit. Instead of draining toxins and metabolic waste, it too becomes clogged and polluted, like a toilet bowl filled with sewage that just won’t flush! Then the heart takes a hit – the birth of hypertension and heart disease!

As I indicated earlier — so long as we’re not practicing any other obvious bad habits — the food we eat may be the main culprit for these cascading events. Manufacturers are processing food in such a way, they deplete all of the nutrients out of them. These manufacturers think they are doing us a favor by putting these nutrients back in synthetic form. But vitamins and minerals made in a lab does not come close to the real thing, even though chemistry-wise, they may look like the real thing. Our bodies will indeed accept these chemically derived nutrients for a while. But eventually, microscopic damage will slowly build up into inflammation and autoimmune diseases that could have been avoided if we were consuming real food, the way nature intended.

Read the labels of the food you buy. Beware of anything listed as:

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid) 🔻 Hydrogenated Rapeseed 🔻 Maltodextrin 🔻 Aspartame 🔻 High Fructose Corn Syrup 🔻 Ascorbic Acid 🔻 Soy Lecithin 🔻 Invert Sugar 🔻 Artificial Color 🔻 Canola Oil 🔻 Palm Oil and Carrageenan.

Often, on these labels, “enriched flour” usually tops the list, meaning, this is the main ingredient. Like I said earlier, enriched flour is simply a fancy word for, among other things, synthetic iron filings. If iron is not absorbed properly in our bodies, then, like tools left out in the rain and environment, it will rust our organs. Iron is notorious for rusting our liver. Iron needs a carrier, like hemoglobin or haptoglobin to perform its functions properly. If it is free and unbound, as is the case with “enriched flour”, then it is no longer a mineral. Like mercury, lead, and arsenic, it is now a heavy metal, wreaking havoc and puncturing holes where it should not be. The body thus considers it a foreign object, and treats it as such — because it is. Now comes the birth of what we may call gluten intolerance or celiac disease or autoimmune disease. Now comes leaky gut, gallstones in the gallbladder, pancreatitis, insulin resistance, diabetes, Hashimoto’s, Parkinson’s disease and a host of other diseases science has no clue what causes them. Or so they claim.

So what is the solution? Eat healthy. Eat fresh vegetables, especially leafy greens, and fruits, especially berries, made by nature, which gained their life-force from the sun. Avoid synthetic unless you don’t have a choice. Drink natural spring water that contains minerals. Eat small amounts of animal meat and their organs, that when they were alive were allowed the graze out in the sun on natural, organic grass, that grow in pristine, rich, mineral soil. Consider certain sea-foods like oysters, harvested from pristine waters and rich in mineral content, on a limited bases.

But the damage done may have been so strong, that we may need to take it a step further. We may need to add certain healing herbs to fix and cleanse the liver, blood and lymphatic system. For the liver, the ayurvedic herb kutki is legendary for rebuilding damages done to it. For the lymphatic system, another ayurvedic herb called manjistha will unclog it, thus simultaneously cleansing the blood. Olive leaf extract has been made famous since biblical times as a healing herb for general health and well-being.

I personally follow these recommendations listed. In addition, I may occasionally include a heavy metal detox with IP-6 – inositol, to chelate unbound iron out of my body. I may also include modified citrus pectin, to bind and chelate any other toxins or heavy metal out of my system. It is not a quick process. It may take months before seeing noticeable results. Keep in mind that herbs should typically be used only three (3) times per week, and are best decocted or infused into tea form. Keep in mind also that IP-6 chelates not only unbound iron, but calcium and zinc as well. So be sure to be re-instituting your body  with food rich in these minerals after the process.

Crohn’s disease: A Disease Caused by Trauma!

Posted on by Diogenes II

 

If you are reading this, you may already know that Crohn’s disease is a devastating type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), indiscriminately causing chronic inflammatory digestive problems along the gastrointestinal tract. I have experimented with numerous natural supplements —not specifically for Crohn’s — but for similar ailments, to finally seeing very satisfactory end-results. Here I will discuss these various supplements and natural healing methods, including ayurvedic herbs that have been used to heal many digestive tract ailments, — including Crohn’s — throughout the centuries, and for me personally as a beneficiary.

The complete digestive tract shares direct relationship with the brain and the way we think. Often, people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis have had a major traumatic experience or many traumatic experiences throughout their lives. These folks often live a life of severe depression. Just as depression stagnates the mind, it also stagnates the digestive tract. In the case of Crohn’s, the cecum, the beginning part of the large intestine that connects from the small intestine is often compromised with undigested food and bacteria, causing an inflammatory response. This inflammatory response radiates throughout the digestive tract, sporadically. Even worse, this inflammatory response will affect the entire thickness of the intestinal tract where it lays.

People with this disease often suffer from large amounts of intraheptic stones in the liver and extrahepatic stones in the gallbladder.  This thus causes a lack of bile availability to the gallbladder. This lack of bile then compromises the digestion of food — especially fats — in the small intestine and a lack of lubrication to the wall of the large intestine.

To start the healing process of Crohn’s disease, you must increase the proper formation of bile in the liver. This is done by consuming both sour and bitter foods. You may also increase the flow of bile by performing a series of coffee enemas.

Now I recommend a series of procedures,  starting with:

1. Dragon’s Blood tincture: A traditional Chinese medicine, this tree sap has had promising results alleviating many stomach issues, including Crohn’s and Ulcerative colitis.

2. DGL (Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice): chewed 15 minutes before each meal. DGL soothes and promotes mucosal coating for the stomach and intestinal tract. You will feel the soothing effect quickly.

3. Zinc has been tested and found to strengthen the gut lining in patients with Crohn’s disease. But most zinc supplements are not the right kind and are quite dangerous when taken in supplement form. If you decide to use zinc, it must only come from real food, and not synthetically (avoid zinc oxide and zinc picolinate, for example). A company called Naturelo sells Vegan Zinc stated to be made from real food, and another company called Nutrigold sells Zinc Gold — both made from real food!

4. Guduchi/Ginger/Turmeric combination:

Guduchi is an ayurvedic herb that helps fix many liver problems and causes bile to develop properly in the liver and flow properly from the gallbladder into the common bile duct, hence lubricating the intestinal tract for proper digestion of food.

Adding ginger enhances guduchi’s effectiveness also, particularly when it comes to healing Crohn’s disease.

Adding turmeric mixed with coconut oil may prove triple effective with guduchi and ginger. So, it’s a pinch of guduchi, ginger and turmeric mixed with coconut oil — this blend is a winner!

5. Wild chaga tea: there are compounds, minerals and vitamins in the chaga conk that will soothe the intestinal tract over time. For instance, magnesium reduces inflammation throughout the body; so does copper. The chaga conk contains all these, and much more. This conk works on a microscopic level, healing and reinvigorating the inner networks of a cell, including the cell’s energy house — its  mitochondria.

6. Olive leaf extract: This acts as a NATURAL antibiotic, killing some forms of bad bacteria, viruses, funguses such as mold and yeast, and parasites. Unlike synthetic drugs such as penicillin, pathogens WILL NOT/ CAN NOT build up a resistance to this herb. (There will be the Herxheimer-reaction for a short period of time while using this herb.)

7. Sunlight: most people with Crohn’s disease are low on vitamin D and a dysfunctioning of the hormone serotonin.
15 minutes of sun for light -skinned people and 25 minutes for darker skinned people, at least four (4) days per week, will provide about 10,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day. A lack of vitamin D can cause colon cancer and other cancers. (If you opt to take Vitamin D3 via supplements, make sure to take it with a whole-food multivitamin containing natural vitamins A, E, and vitamin K2 mk-7 to prevent kidney stones and arterial calcification.)
Serotonin, considered both a neurotransmitter and a hormone produced inside the body, is found mostly in the digestive system (95%) — and the brain (5%). Serotonin is said to improve mood and decreases symptoms of depression. However, it has actually been observed that too much (or a dysfunctioning of) serotonin causes more depression than low serotonin. My theory is this: Sunlight is a mega instigator/producer of serotonin. Darkness turns the serotonin into melatonin at night. If you are not sleeping at the right hours and for the right length of time, this old serotonin builds up and gets recycled and becomes toxic, since it was not timely converted to melatonin like it should have. If my theory is correct, it will not be unusual that low serotonin level will seem beneficial for some, while also causing problems for others, like depression and digestive issues. The problem is not with serotonin itself, but an interference of the process of serotonin being converted/synthesized  into melatonin at the appropriate time.

8. Leaves, stems and roots: compounds in dark leafy greens (and otherwise) such as cooked watercress, bok choy, yu choy, asparagus, red cabbage, parsley, daikon radish and kohlrabi will help alleviate the symptoms and causes of Crohn’s disease, over time.

As a bonus: I’ve heard Ayurveda tout the fruit bottle gourd — calabash — as a reliever of IBD symptoms, which may also improve symptoms  of Crohn’s disease.

9. Sour and bitter foods: Granny Smith apples and bitter melon will surely help stimulate the flow of bile, for example. This will in turn help to decrease the need for inflammation throughout the digestive tract caused by Crohn’s disease.

10. Refraining/avoiding: Avoid certain foods and products that may cause or increase inflammation. Avoid packaged foods, frozen foods, microwave foods, peanut products, nut butter, tomato or tomato sauce or any commercial sauce, eggs, garlic, onions, black pepper, cow’s milk and cheese, unripened banana, alcohol or any other product that may cause flare ups.  Focus on eating clean, fresh, organic foods.

11. Coffee enemas: Consider a series of coffee enemas — using organic,  medium roast coffee beans.  This may help stimulate bile production in the liver, and thus bile flow to the gallbladder. This procedure can be performed — occasionally — once or twice per week, sometimes more.

As a bonus, supplementing on a bile acid product called TUDCA during this time may enhance the production of bile flow.

12. Digestible oils: Certain oils may speed up the healing of Crohn’s disease, while others may aggravate the condition.  For example,  most people may find comfort in substituting coconut oil above all other oils,  being that coconut oil does not need bile to be properly digested and absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. Pure, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil may work as well. So will butter.

On the contrary,  certain other oils,  even those with omega 3 fatty acids, may not be suitable for someone with Crohn’s.  Avoid canola, soy, corn, safflower or any other “vegetable” oils, for example, which are almost always used in fastfood and other restaurants. Avoid ghee as well — very inflammatory, creating damaging end-products that are not suitable for proper digestion. Avoid margarine, butter-substitutes (imitation) and trans fats as well.

As a bonus,  I’ve heard eating an orange or drinking fresh lemon juice on an empty stomach in the mornings may help reverse some of the damages caused by unhealthy oils!

13. Shatavari: can be taken 2 hours before a meal or 2 hours after. Shatavari acts as peristalsis that pushes the entire intestinal tract, to prevent stagnation of undigested food and toxins.

Shatavari, used excessively, may increase estrogen levels in the body over time. So I recommend taking this herb only short-term, between two (2) to four (4) weeks, at a time.

***

For me personally, the combination of guduchi-ginger and chaga as a tea resolved many of my digestive ailments the way no other supplement has in the last 30 years of me trying, having failed to find something other that worked. Also DGL had a great impact in preventing me from having food allergies. However, the combination of all these recommendations, I believe, will set the path in alleviating most of the symptoms associated with Crohn’s, in my humble opinion.

Update:

I have updated this article significantly  as I learn more. If you are suffering from this disease, or whatever it is, you will most likely have to deal with bacterial overgrowth and fungal overgrowth (SIBO, SIFO, for example) as well. So consider this reality in conjunction with tackling Crohn’s disease.

Healing Chronic Constipation

Posted on by Diogenes II

 

We need to move our bowels everyday, at least once a day — otherwise toxins build up, and poison our blood and tissues. These toxins are created by the fermentation of putrefying food, and the bacteria that feed on them, the metabolic waste produced by our cells, the indigestible toxins in food, and others. It is critical that these poisonous agents be removed from the bowels daily. If they are not removed on a timely basis, they reabsorb back into our blood and settle in vulnerable tissues throughout the body.

Chronic constipation can be very stressful and debilitating to the mind. It can also be very uncomfortable and painful for the body. But healing it — when you discover how — can be amazingly simple and invigorating. What many people don’t know is that the stomach, small intestine and colon are made of: muscle. When you ingest food, this muscle (called smooth muscle) pushes the food along via automatic variations of contractions and expansions. The nutrient most responsible in aiding in the automatic process is none other than vitamin B1 (otherwise known as thiamine).

I recommend you take 50 mg of this vitamin for a week or two, and I can assure you, you will never have chronic constipation again. Do NOT take it with other B vitamins at the same time during this process: B vitamins compete with each other, and reduce each other’s effective if you take them at the same time.

I may not know you personally, but I can assure you, if you have had chronic constipation for many years, your brain cells are being affected. The colon has direct connection to the mind and brain. That is why depressed people often get constipated, and vice versa. I recommend you start taking these four (or five) other herbs, and I’ll tell you why:

a.) Shatavari or Triphala: Shatavari is good for maintaining a healthy colon, thus a healthy mind. It also balances the hormones.

Shatavari, used excessively, may increase estrogen levels in the body over time — so I only recommend using this for a few days at a time.

An everyday supplement that can be used to keep the bowels relatively healthy is a very popular ayurvedic herb-berry blend called Triphala. This herb-berry blend contains amla, haritaki and bibhitaki.

b.) Olive leaf extract: this herb acts as a natural antibiotic, killing bacteria, viruses, fungi/funguses such as mold and yeast, and other pathogens. Unlike synthetic drugs such as penicillin, whereby these germs can build up a resistance, they CANNOT with olive leaf extract. (Watch out for the Herxheimer-reaction. I can assure you, you will experience it for about a week. It’s natural.)

c.) Turmeric with coconut oil: This is good for the brain cells and to prevent cancer tumors from forming/developing in the colon. 1/4 teaspoon once per day, and no more. Too much of a good thing — even that can lead to bad things.

d.) Guduchi: If I could only recommend three herbs to people, this herb would be one of them.

I personally suffered from chronic constipation every time I used the restroom for the entire first 20 years of my life. It was not until I read about the muscular coordination of the digestive tract and that vitamin B1 was the solution to fix that, that I finally received relief. It took three days of me using 50 mg of B1 to resolve my chronic constipation forever. Depending on your situation, you may need to try the other supplements I recommended to resolve the further damage long term, chronic constipation may have contributed to.