Holistically Healthy
Can’t get Pregnant? Have you considered this?
Are you struggling to get pregnant? We live in an age where more and more couples struggle to conceive a baby; so, although it may offer you little consolation, you are not alone.
When I first started my practice, the first person to contact me was a lady who was struggling to get pregnant. She asked for my help because she blamed the negative emotions she was experiencing for her inability to conceive. Her belief, and mine, was that moving past her negative emotions would help her conceive and have the baby she so wanted so desperately.
After three sessions she was much happier, more relaxed and positive. Several months later, I heard from her to say she was pregnant, and over a year later I bumped into her with her new little girl at a post-natal baby weigh-in (where I was taking my daughter, I hasten to add)!
What is this About?
Since the 1980s the link between negative mental and emotional states of mind and infertility has become more understood. Our states of mind can have a real impact on our ability to conceive. This is something that believe so strongly that I was rather surprised and taken aback today when a gentleman questioned “how on earth could I help with fertility and pregnancy?”
Research supports the fact that your state of mind affects your ability to conceive
How indeed? Well although when one normally thinks about fertility, test tubes and medical interventions spring to mind, we need to also take a real consideration for how our state of mind and emotions can have an affect on our body. An eminent researcher in the field or fertility, Dr. Alice Domar has proven the benefits of improving your state of mind in regards to improving your chances of conception. An assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the author of numerous books, 
tudy involved 184 women who had been trying to conceive for between one and two years. Her article explained that the women who underwent her mind/body programme were almost three times more likely to conceive and get pregnant than those who didn’t. Her programme involved the women learning emotional release, nutrition advice and relaxation training. After her programme 55% of the women conceived, as opposed to 20% of the control group.
I often work with people to change their limiting beliefs, because they can sabotage you at a subconscious level. Limiting beliefs are negative thoughts, such as ‘I am not good enough’, ‘That will never happen’ etc. It was inspiring to see Dr Domar also working to change limiting beliefs such as “I will never have a baby” into more positive ones such as “I’m doing everything I can to get pregnant”.
For those of us interested in the mind/body connection Dr Domar’s reserach should not come as any big surprise. But if you are just starting to understand the amazing link between our bodies and our mind, it may come as a revelation. The mind/ body link enables us to see how our mindset may be affecting our body’s ability to conceive. In order to have the best chance of conceiving your hormones need to be in balance. Hormones are chemical messengers often created as a result of our thoughts. So, if our conscious or subconscious thoughts are negative, these chemical messengers will adversely affect the body’s hormone balance.
Stress causes a decrease in your progesterone levels
An example of this mind/body hormonal link can be seen in the realm of stress. Constant stress causes a decrease in your progesterone levels. The hormone progesterone is needed if you want be become pregnant and stay pregnant because it nourishes the lining of the uterus in preparation of the implanted fertilized egg and feeds and nourishes the uterus during pregnancy. So if you are stressed, this may be having an adverse affect on your progesterone levels which may be reducing your chances of conception.
Why is this Important?
Assuming you have seen your GP and ruled out all the physical reasons that might be preventing you from becoming pregnant, you may be confused and lost for a reason as to why this seemingly natural process is eluding you. If you can identify with that description, this post is important for you because it may be your state of mind that is causing the struggle.
Ironically, unless you understand the importance of this knowledge, the delayed ability to conceive can often lead to a downward spiral of unhelpful emotions and thoughts such as failure, guilt, jealousy, anger, etc that all add up to more stress, which impacts on your ability to conceive.
How do I use This?
Now you know how stress and negative thoughts and emotions may be impacting on your ability to conceive, you have the choice to act on that knowledge. You have the ability to change your thinking patterns and trigger your relaxation response. It can be difficult to change on your own, but help is available and I will give you a link to some free downloads to help you in a minute.
Often the stresses of daily life simply rob us of the motivation and energy to change. I wonder if I asked you to scale your motivation between 1 and 10 where you would honestly say it was? Once you have decided on a figure ask yourself why it is not less? You may be surprised at just how motivated you are to change once you think about it in this way.
Often all that you really need is the motivation to change because once you have that motivation then things like the belief you can change and the knowledge of how to begin that change begin to slot into place.
Free Help for a Better Mind, a Better Body and a Better life!
Sign up for a Newsletter and get news later this month of a Deep Relaxation download to help you relax.
Other pages you might find useful:
Gratitude can be a great way to stay positive and avoid stress these posts explain how.
Resources
Impact of group psychological interventions on pregnancy rates in infertile women
The Stress-Infertility Connection
Impact of group psychological interventions on pregnancy rates in infertile women
Restore Hormonal Balance for Improved Fertility
Hypnotism-gave-baby-I-longed-for
3 Strategies for Gratitude When Life is Tough!
These days I often introduce the idea of a Gratitude Journal by telling the story of Gabi MacEwan. An inspirational lady who decided to start practising gratitude after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. As she says:
“I don’t live in a constant state of bliss. Sometimes I’m frustrated, disillusioned and sad, but I heartily recommend the cumulative effect of noticing and noting the moments of delight, relief or humour each day.”
So with that recommendation I want to give you some strategies for keeping the gratitude alive when life sucks, because being told to keep a Gratitude Journal when you feel your life is going down the pan, things look bleak and your feeling low can be a big ‘ask’. It’s times like this that doing a gratitude journal can be really tough. I’ve had clients say there was just nothing in their day that they felt grateful for, some have said they were writing the same old things and grew tired of the ‘chore’. Ironically of course when life is unfairly hard is exactly when you benefit from the practice the most.
What is this About?
I recently posted on the benefits of keeping a gratitude journal, but as with many good habits you may find yourself too busy to do it when you are feeling good, and too tough when your not. So if you are like some of my original clients, you will keep a journal for a few days and then the practice of being grateful will begin to slide.
The answer is to make it habit and for that happen you need to commit to doing the practice until it becomes a subconscious reaction to think of things you are grateful for. Some people say it takes 21 days to make a habit stick, others 66, whoever is right, you will probably benefit from a strategy and support to really embed this new behaviour and way of thinking.
So having some strategies and support will help you make this positive activity a habit and today I want to focus on one of those strategies that makes keeping a gratefulness journal easy.
Why is this Important?
Because lets face it, there are times when life sucks! Whatever the reason for the ‘suckyness’, the simple act of writing down (or saying out-loud) the things for which we’re grateful gives benefits including better sleep, fewer symptoms of illness, and more happiness among adults and kids alike. Brilliant medicine when life feels like it is going down the pan and things looks bleak.
How do I Use This?
Personally I find that buying a nice journal helped me to keep me committed to the task and you may want to do the same thing. Make a conscious choice now and commit to experiencing more gratitude in your life. Then try these strategies:
- Set aside some time so you can allow yourself the opportunity to really notice the depth of your gratitude. Take time to relish and savour the feelings.
- Pick one person you know and just take time to allow all of the good reasons for having them in your life surface into your consciousness. Whenever possible focus on people and dogs in your life. Apparently whether we think of our pet dogs or children the same area of our brains are activated. So being grateful for your dog is ok!
- Go into depth – Elaborating in detail about a particular thing for which you’re grateful carries more benefits than a superficial list of many things.
If you can think of these things in terms of gifts so much the better, according to Robert Emmons, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of gratitude. His advice is:
“Be aware of your feelings and how you “relish” and “savor” this gift in your imagination. Take the time to be especially aware of the depth of your gratitude.”
I wonder if you maybe surprised at what you have been grateful for today?
Resources
The power of gratitude
Gabi MacEwan Blog: Losing the Will To Die
10 Reasons Why Gratitude is Good for You
It Takes 66 days to make a Habbit
Kids, dogs touch same soft spots in the brain: study
Please signup to our Newsletter for News, Workshops, Webinars, Blog posts and Freebies!
Can you get a better nights sleep and improve your health and happiness?
Is your mind busy when it’s time to rest and sleep? Do you have problems switching off at bedtime? Mind active and won’t slow down? Do you toss and turn because your thoughts won’t let you rest?
If that image of being too restless to sleep sounds like you, you have a lot in common with many of the people I help and there is a good chance your flight or fight response is active.
What is this about?
So lets talk about one way to switch off the fight or flight response and quieten the mind down at bedtime. There are many ways to achieve this, and one I really like is to keep a gratitude journal.
Spending a few minutes each night to think about things you are really grateful for is a great way to calm the mind and body and trigger the relaxation response. Focusing on the things you have been grateful for during the day will help you to let go of the things that were worrying you and help you get a good nights sleep.
But you do need to do it properly; robotically going through things you think you should be grateful for is not the same! If you are aware of the work of Candace Pert, you will know that your thoughts trigger the release of chemicals that flood the body, but that does not really happen if you think the thoughts in a detached fashion. You need to think the thoughts with your heart too.
Why is this Important?
It is really important that the fight or flight response is turned off and the relaxation response is triggered for sleep. Normally during sleep our bodies and minds should go through cycles of healing and repair, but these cycles are associated with being in a relaxed state. When we are stressed they are put on hold and your body does not heal and repair as it should.
So if you want to be healthy and happy triggering the relaxation response just before sleep will help.
It seems odd to think we can be stressed while sleeping, but studies have shown that some people, like those with CFS/ME, do actually stay stressed during their sleep. So spending a few minutes contemplating what you are grateful for or what has gone well during the day is one way to switch off the fight or flight response.
Gratitude is great because it focuses you on what you have, not what you want or what you would like. I buy a nice little note pad for those that take part in my workshops, so they can use it as a journal and I urge you to buy something special too. Having a nice book to write in and maybe a nice pen will make the activity special and keep you motivated.
How do I Use This?
Personally I would prefer a paper based journal as modern technology like phones tend to keep us stimulated, alert and possibly stressed. Much better to create your own paper based journal which can become a treasure trove of positivity for you, as it fills with things that you have been grateful for. Something like this is ideal.
Spend a little bit of time composing your thoughts and then write down what you have been grateful for today. Feel the feelings as deeply as possible with your heart.
One lady I was talking too, said how truly grateful she felt for the home she lived in, even though it was nowhere near as nice as she would like. This was something she had moaned about and criticised until hearing of a tragedy the other side of the world where people had lost their homes and were spending night outside. Another lady spent ages trying to think of something only to realise she was grateful for the comfortable warm bed she was laying in.
Another chap said he thought of a different person he knew each night, spending time remembering how they have or had positively contributed to his life. It’s a good thing to vary what you write to keep it fresh and relevant.
Sometimes when times are tough, or we are busy and tired it is easy to answer with our head only. You know what I mean, when you say something but it does not have that emotional resonance, that physical sensation that lets you know you have felt something with your heart. Notice the difference between thinking what you are grateful for and feeling it with your heart. It can help to place your hand on your heart and allow the thoughts of gratitude to flow from there.
I wonder if you maybe surprised at what you have been grateful for today?
Resources
The power of gratitude
10 Reasons Why Gratitude is Good for You
Please signup to our Newsletter for News, Workshops, Webinars, Blog posts and Freebies!
Is this the First Step to Health and Happiness?
Do you believe other people are more interesting and loveable than you are? Do you feel your opinions do not matter? Do you lack the love and attention you need? Do you feel out of control of your life, finances and relationships? Do you believe nothing will ever change?
If you answered ‘yes’ to those questions take a breath, pause, let it go and read on, because as the aeroplane safety video says,
“Put your own oxygen mask on first. You can’t take care of others if you’re running out of air yourself.”
What is this About?
This concept of self-love is about having a good relationship with yourself and your life because it takes a strong caring and nurturing relationship with yourself to do what is necessary to improve your health, well-being and happiness.
So the first step to improving your health, well-being and happiness is to improve the relationship you have with yourself.
Sadly, many people are stuck believing that taking more care of themselves will mean others suffer, or they will be seen as selfish. Women in particular are often taught by example that they should always put other people’s needs first and may feel guilty about taking time for themselves. In many ways this is ironic because to care and help other people we really need to full of energy and enthusiasm and for that to happen we need to take care of ourselves first.
Why is this Important?
Improving your relationship with yourself is vital to taking the next step and seeking help or making changes to your life. Believing that you do matter, that you are loveable, important and in control will help to you to embark and sustain your healing journey.
This is important not just for you, but for those you love, because you will be able to help them so much by being healthy and happy.
How do I Improve?
Make a conscious decision to change and you may be surprised how you gently and slowly you begin to be kinder, more loving, more permissive and more responsible to yourself.
Take the first step and print this worksheet: Improving My Relationship with Myself. Working through it and creating some personal positive affirmations to help you become your own best friend is great way to start.
Resources
Improving My Relationship with Myself.
David R Hamiliton’s top 10 Affirmations.
I was wrong; You really can get stronger and fitter with 12 min of exercise a week
I’ve seen claims like this before and laughed at them. Keeping fit and strong has been a life long interest, well at least since I was 15 and started weight training and running. I even did a Gym Instructor course a few years ago simply for interest. During all of this time the recommendation to train for strength 2 to 3 times a week, and cardiovascular health 5 or 6 times a week has never changed. Those workouts would often involve sessions around an hour long too.
My big problem has been time though, over the last few after walking dogs, being Dad, promoting the business and actually seeing clients and helping people there has not been much time to weight train. I’d start and then a couple of weeks later I’d be missing sessions.
So when I watched the Cereal Killers Movie and saw 41-year-old Donal O’Neill completing personal bests at things like pullups after reducing the frequency of his training and doing high intensity stuff I got me thinking.
A bit of research later and I found Doug McGuff’s Body of Science and so for the last few months I have been doing the shortest hardest routine I have ever done. In a nutshell the idea is that you do one super slow set of a bunch of compound exercises. Choosing a weight that results in failure after about 90 seconds and taking around 20 seconds to complete one rep. Doing it that slow is hard because there is no momentum to help. So shoulder press is followed by lat pull down, then chest press, followed by seated row and finally onto leg press and that is it for a week or two! Shortest amount of time I have ever spent training.
The thing is that it works. After a couple of months I worried that I was not working my core and went in the gym to use a cable machine and do some wood chop style moves. Much to my surprise I easily upped the weight from what I had been doing 6 months before. Equally after a couple of weeks break from swimming, with the McGuff routine as my only exercise I significantly increased the number of lengths I could swim without a break. I think I have also put on about an inch of muscle around my chest, although I have also lost a lot of body fat and never measured myself before starting the routine.
Interestingly the real proof for me has come no I no longer have gym membership. With nowhere to keep weights I have decided to try Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint for fitness, a body-weight more functional based exercise routine. This routine involves an assessment of how many pushups, pullups, and squats you can do followed by how long you can hold a plank. Depending on your results then depends on whether for example you do pushups against a wall, on your knees or inclined etc.
To my joy and amazement I managed 24 pushups, easily over twice what I have been capable of for several years. 5 pullups, 70 squats and I held a plank for over 2 minutes. Not bad for someone who is 50 years old this month.
It will be interesting to see how things workout over the next few months on the new workout. There is a lot I like about it, so I am optimistic that I will continue to gain strength and hopefully muscle mass.
Watch this space, maybe I will even be doing nude selfies lol, actually that is probably reason not to watch this space!!!!!!
References
So I today I bought a Frisbee…
Not sure whether it is synchronicity or my brain filtering for what it wants to see but I’ve had several separate sources that have made me aware that I don’t do fun anymore. Isn’t that sad? Lol I meditate, I train, eat well, and generally ‘practice what I preach’, but in all that I have forgotten about play and fun.
The first reminder came while I was receiving Cranial Osteopathy for several nagging issues. Kate Hands, a wonderful Osteopath, mentioned that I was a bit like ‘Flat Stanley’ a fictional character from a children’s book. Apparently Flat Stanley is well… flat, two dimensional when he should be three, or even four. Initially I was surprised but subconsciously I knew she was right. As Kate said sometimes we just get flattened by life circumstances. But if meditation, EFT and all the other tools I know were not helping what would?
The second reminder came while reading Mark Sisson’s Daily Apple blog. I stumbled across his Primal Blueprint for Fitness, a free Ebook that details a functional fitness routine using progressive body-weight exercises. Now since our move I have no room for my weights, and my gym membership expired so this routine appealed. The guy is also 57 and physically impressive, so I read more.
Mark’s reason to exercise and be fit involves enjoying life and enjoying play. Indeed he says “the ability to play, to engage in unscripted, random bouts of youthful exuberance with loved ones, friends, and family – is the ultimate goal of Primal Blueprint Fitness”. This nurtured the seed that Kate planted and has been slowly germinating in my subconscious for a few days now.
Then this week I began seriously working through Dr Rosy Daniel’s Health Creation Programme in preparation for training to be a Health Creation Mentor. Part of that involves an assessment of my potential for health and low and behold but it flagged up again that I don’t have enough fun! Now part of this preparation involves seeing the Programme from the other side of the fence and being Mentored myself. So one of the goals suggested by my Mentor was to have ‘mandatory fun’ and to create a mood board or journal to write down ideas for how to accomplish that. So this was my third reminder!
Reading more of Mark Sisson’s resources and I kept seeing references to playing with Frisbees, something that seems completely frivolous and generates images of kids (in the US admittedly) having fun and laughing.
So I today I bought a Frisbee…
And this afternoon, I had fun throwing and catching it with Debbie.
Resources:
Mark’s Daily Apple: The Lost Art of Play: Reclaiming a Primal Tradition
When Listening to Your Doctor Does You More Harm Than Good
Just as the mind can help us with health treatments and healing, so too can it hinder. A poor outcome that had been totally generated by a subject’s negative expectation of a drug or treatment is known as a ‘nocebo’. For example research shows that negative suggestions that lead to anxiety over a condition, can activate a peptide hormone called CCK that will intensify pain. Another example is highlighted in Daniel Moerman’s book Meaning, Medicine and the ‘Placebo Effect’ (Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology)
If better advertising of one product can diminish the positive effect of another, because of ‘negative expectation‘, just imagine what effect some of the following statements might have:
“You’ve passed the deadline, according to the statistics you shouldn’t even be alive now”
“You will experience pain afterwords and it will be several weeks before you’ll be able to move around”
“You can’t possible be ready to deliver. You’re not in enough pain yet.”
“You need to accept that you’re not going home.”
They are sentences that have been told to people. Take that either way you like!
Words such as these delivered by people in positions of assumed authority, like medical staff, can create powerful nocebo responses and I often find myself working with people to undo the harm done by words such as these.
So my advice is to be careful what you listen to to and believe, think about whether you are you being told a fact or an opinion, because predictions of your future potential for health are often opinions rather than facts.
Further Reading:
The Nocebo Effect: How Negative Thoughts Can Harm Your Health
References
An fMRI study on the neural mechanisms of hyperalgesic nocebo effect,F. Benedetti et al, J. Neuroscience 2006 , 26(46), 12014-22
The One Thing you Must Learn For your Health
My journey back to full health from the misery of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was unfortunately longer than it could and should have been. If we (my husband, Pete, and myself) had known back then what we did now, the trial and error we went through could have been avoided and we could have honed in on those things which not only really helped me but also have since been scientifically proven to help.
One of the therapies I tried back when I was ill was Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) otherwise known as Tapping. I will be blogging more about this technique in upcoming blogs but, in a nutshell, EFT is a simple yet highly effective self-help tool based on energy psychology. It is based on the Eastern philosophy of gently tapping on energy meridian points throughout the body, the same meridian points used in acupuncture and acupressure. When I was ill, exactly how or why EFT worked was irrelevant to me; what I simply recognised was that I felt better after using it. EFT is simply amazing at helping with emotional, physical and behavioural problems, as well as helping to overcome negative thoughts.
I was taught EFT by an experienced practitioner who showed me where the tapping points were and how to tap effectively, for maximum benefits and health gains. Once I was taught it I could then use it myself at home whenever I needed to. There were times when it did not seem to be as effective as it could have been and it was then that I knew it was time to see the practitioner again as she seemed able to ask the right questions to bring up emotions that might have been hiding under the surface and which I was too reluctant to tackle myself. However, in general, tapping at home several times a day seemed to really help me feel more relaxed, which ultimately helped me feel physically better as well.
As I said, at the time, I did not really care how EFT was helping me, only that I knew that it was. However it is really interesting now with hindsight to read emerging research on EFT which scientifically demonstrates the physical effects EFT can have and why it was so helpful to my recovery.
A randomized, controlled trial study(1) has recently shown how EFT can have a physical effect on the body by affecting the biochemical marker of stress called cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone, often referred to as the ‘stress hormone’ as it is often elevated when we are suffering from stress, anxiety and depression. In this study, 83 participants were divided into three groups. Group 1 were given one hour of traditional psychotherapy, ‘talk therapy’, group 2 were given one hour of EFT and group 3 were the control group and given no interventions. The cortisol levels of each group were measured before and after treatments.
The results were staggering. There were no changes in the cortisol levels for participants in group 1 and 3, but in group 2, the EFT group, the cortisol levels decreased by 24%. The researchers were so amazed by this response they thought that there must be an error in the readings and they recalibrated their equipment and retested. After a lot of retesting which showed the same results, they finally accepted that there was nothing wrong with their equipment: EFT worked!
If one single session of EFT can have such a dramatic reduction in cortisol levels, imagine what regular tapping could do for your health?
As we have seen in our webinars, the stress response which is responsible for elevated cortisol levels has wide-ranging, debilitating physical affects on our body. Something which starts life as an emotion or a negative thought can actually impact in a very real, physical way on how we are feeling, exacerbating our symptoms and hindering the body’s natural healing response. In my case, the insidious impact of cumulative stressors which had crept up on me and which not only meant then when I got ME/CFS my body was already in a compromised, weakened state but which also kept me ill for so long, was a key factor in my illness. Working with our clients, we know that I was not alone. So many sufferers are hindered by the effects of stressors which are keeping them stuck in ill-health, it is really tragic and frustrating that not more is being done to make sufferers aware of what can be done to help them.
Looking back with the knowledge we now have from the researchers, I am convinced that learning and using EFT was a key factor in my recovery. (In fact, it is now a key factor in my life, as when I recovered I went onto qualify as an Advanced Practitioner of EFT!) We now know how important this simple tool is for our clients and teach it to them so that we are really putting control of their health back into their hands, or rather at the tip of their fingers. If you would like to know more about this amazing tool which can revolutionise your health see Pete’s YouTube video and join us for one of our workshops and tap yourself back to health 🙂
Debbie
References
1. Garret Yount, Audrey Brooks and Dawson Church,The Effect of Emotional Freedom Technique on Stress Biochemistry; A Randomized Controlled Trial, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease,2012
Why You Should Avoid Gluten – Like the Plague!
If you are unwell, and especially if you are unwell and your Doctors are struggling to find an answer, cutting gluten (a protein found in wheat and related grains) from your diet could be the best thing you can do to help yourself. If feeling better is not enough of a reason to change, it may increase your motivation to know that many autoimmune conditions start just like that, feeling unwell with no obvious cause.
Gluten appears to be linked more and more with people feeling unwell and conditions involving the dysfunction of the immune system, where the immune system begins to attack parts of your body rather than just pathogens.
What Is Wrong with Gluten?
Some doctors and researchers are beginning to believe that gluten sensitivity may be a factor in every autoimmune disease. Certainly gluten seems to be involved with increasing the permeability of the gut lining which allows incompletely digested nutrients (good and bad bacteria, and other pathogens) into the bloodstream or lymphatic system creating an immune response. Leaky gut is the layman’s term being given to this phenomenon. Exactly what leaks out of the gut will depend on the type of immune response, and therefore the symptoms you experience. However, this ‘leaky gut’ or increased gut permeability is bad news and is increasingly being linked with autoimmune conditions.
It is well known that autoimmune conditions may occur due to a genetic disposition, certain lifestyles and a trigger event but it also becoming evident that a change in function of our gut lining is also a factor.
“In addition to genetic predisposition and exposure to triggering nonself-antigens, the loss of the protective function of mucosal barriers that interact with the environment (mainly the gastrointestinal and lung mucosa) is necessary for autoimmunity to develop.”
—ALESSIO FASANO,
“Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases,”
Clinical Review of Allergy Immunology 42 (February 2012): 71–78.
Coeliac disease is a proven recognised example; four times more common today than it was fifty years ago, it is caused by a reaction of the immune system to gluten – a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. When someone with coeliac disease eats gluten, their immune system reacts by damaging the lining of the small intestine leading to all kinds of problems. Symptoms can include bloating, diarrhoea, nausea, wind, constipation, tiredness, headaches, mouth ulcers, sudden weight loss, hair loss, anaemia and osteoporosis. Coeliac condition is an example of an autoimmune disease and more and more autoimmune diseases are being linked to gluten sensitivity.
Gluten is also likely to cause the production of auto-antibodies because there are many amino acid sequences in gluten that are very similar to those of the proteins in the human body. Organs of the body can then be caught in ‘friendly fire’ as the antibodies produced to deal with the proteins in gluten attack parts of the body made from proteins that look very similar.
“There are actually 140 autoimmune diseases that we’ve identified, and the only scientifically agreed upon cause for autoimmune is gluten sensitivity. Now, there are other triggers for autoimmune disease. An infection can trigger an autoimmune disease. A vitamin deficiency can trigger an autoimmune disease, particularly vitamin D. But gluten tends to be kind of that central core hub that’s always present.”
—DR. PETER OSBORNE, gluten-sensitivity expert
Why Is This Important?
The list of diseases with a known or suspected autoimmune origin is huge (see the list below). Whether you have already developed one of these, or are experiencing a lack of wellness, changing your diet can be beneficial. Healthy functioning of your gut is crucial to your health and well-being.
How do I use This Information?
The minimum I recommend is for you to go on a gluten free diet for at least a month. A month without foods containing gluten seems a good way of finding out how it can improve your health.
Ideally I would recommend you follow either of the the diets described here:
Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!
Your Personal Paleo Diet: Feel and look great by eating the foods that are ideal for your body
See my Healing Diets: Paleo or Crazy Sexy Vegan Diet for Health? post for more details on those protocols.
Of Interest:
David Perlmutter MD‘s post.
References
http://www.celiac.nih.gov/prevalence.aspx
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2886850/
The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body
The following is a list of diseases that are either confirmed autoimmune diseases or for which there is very strong scientific evidence for autoimmune origins:
| A | |
| Acute brachial neuropathy (also known as acute brachial radiculitis, neuralgic amyotrophy, brachial neuritis, brachial plexus neuropathy, brachial plexitis, and Parsonage-Turner syndrome) | Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) |
| Acute necrotizing hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis | Acute parapsoriasis (also known as acute guttate parapsoriasis, acute pityriasis lichenoides, parapsoriasis varioliformis, Mucha-Habermann disease, and parapsoriasis or pityriasis lichenoides et varioliformis acuta) |
| Addison’s disease (also known as chronic adrenal insufficiency, hypocortisolism, and hypoadrenalism) | Adult linear IgA disease (also known as linear IgA disease) |
| Agammaglobulinemia | Allergic granulomatosis (also known as Churg-Strauss syndrome) |
| Alopecia areata (AA; also known as spot baldness) | American trypanosomiasis (also known as Chagas disease) |
| Amyloidosis | Anaphylactoid purpura (also known as purpura rheumatica and Henoch-Schönlein purpura) |
| Angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia (also known as Castleman’s disease, giant lymph node hyperplasia, and lymphoid hamartoma) | Ankylosing spondylitis (AS; also known as Bekhterev’s disease and Marie-Strümpell disease) |
| Anti-GBM or anti-TBM nephritis | Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS or APLS; also known as Hughes syndrome) |
| Aplastic anemia (also known as autoimmune aplastic anemia) | Arthritis psoriatica (also known as arthropathic psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis) |
| Arthropathic psoriasis (also known as arthritis psoriatica and psoriatic arthritis) | Atrophic polychondritis (also known as systemic chondromalacia and relapsing polychondritis) |
| Autoimmune angioedema | Autoimmune aplastic anemia (also known as aplastic anemia) |
| Autoimmune cardiomyopathy | Autoimmune dysautonomia |
| Autoimmune hemolytic anemia | Autoimmune hepatitis |
| Autoimmune hyperlipidemia | Autoimmune immunodeficiency |
| Autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) | Autoimmune myocarditis |
| Autoimmune pancreatitis | Autoimmune peripheral neuropathy (also known as peripheral neuropathy) |
| Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (APS) | Autoimmune polyglandular syndrome, Types 1, 2, and 3 |
| Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis | Autoimmune retinopathy |
| Autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura (ATP; also known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) | Autoimmune thyroid disease |
| Autoimmune urticaria | Autoimmune uveitis (also known as uveitis) |
| Axonal and neuronal neuropathies | |
| B | |
| Balo disease (also known as Balo concentric sclerosis) | Behçet’s disease (also known as Silk Road disease) |
| Bekhterev’s disease (also known as ankylosing spondylitis and Marie-Strümpell disease) | Benign mucosal pemphigoid (also known as cicatricial pemphigoid, benign mucous membrane pemphigoid, scarring pemphigoid, and ocular cicatricial pemphigoid) |
| Berger’s disease (also known as IgA nephropathy and synpharyngitic glomerulonephritis) | Besnier-Boeck disease (also known as sarcoidosis) |
| Bickerstaff’s encephalitis | Bladder pain syndrome (also known as interstitial cystitis) |
| Brachial neuritis (also known as brachial plexus neuropathy, brachial plexitis, Parsonage-Turner syndrome, acute brachial neuropathy, acute brachial radiculitis, and neuralgic amyotrophy) | Bullous pemphigoid |
| C | |
| Castleman’s disease (also known as giant lymph node hyperplasia, lymphoid hamartoma, and angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia) | Celiac disease (also known as coeliac disease and celiac sprue) |
| Chagas disease (also known as American trypanosomiasis) | Chorea minor (also known as Sydenham’s chorea) |
| Chronic adrenal insufficiency (also known as hypocortisolism, hypoadrenalism, and Addison’s disease) | Chronic focal encephalitis (CFE; also known as Rasmussen’s encephalitis) |
| Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) | Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (also known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) |
| Chronic recurrent multifocal ostomyelitis (CRMO) | Chronic urticaria as a manifestation of venulitis (also known as urticarial vasculitis) |
| Churg-Strauss syndrome (also known as allergic granulomatosis) | Cicatricial pemphigoid (also known as benign mucosal pemphigoid) |
| Cogan’s syndrome | Cold agglutinin disease |
| Congenital heart block | Coxsackie viral myocarditis |
| Cranial arteritis (also known as Horton disease, giant cell arteritis, and temporal arteritis) | CREST syndrome (also known as limited systemic sclerosis or scleroderma) |
| Crohn’s disease | Crow-Fukase syndrome (also known as Takatsuki disease, PEP syndrome, and POEMS syndrome) |
| Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA; also known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and fibrosing alveolitis) | |
| D | |
| Demyelinating neuropathies (also known as idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating diseases) | Dermatomyositis (DM) |
| Devic’s disease (also known as neuromyelitis optica) | Diabetes mellitus type 1 (also known as insulin-dependent diabetes and type 1 diabetes) |
| Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) | Dressler’s syndrome (also known as postmyocardial infarction syndrome) |
| Duhring’s disease (also known as dermatitis herpetiformis) | |
| E | |
| Endocarditis lenta (also known as subacute bacterial endocarditis) | Endometriosis |
| Eosinophilic esophagitis or gastroenteritis | Eosinophilic fasciitis |
| Erythema nodosum | Erythroblastopenia (also known as pure red cell aplasia) |
| Essential mixed cryoglobulinemia | Evans syndrome |
| Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) | |
| F | |
| Fibrosingalveolitis (also known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis) | |
| G | |
| Gestational pemphigoid (also known as herpes gestationis) | Giant cell arteritis (also known as temporal arteritis, cranial arteritis, and Horton disease) |
| Giant lymph node hyperplasia (also known as lymphoid hamartoma, angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia, and Castleman’s disease) | Glomerulonephritis |
| Goodpasture’s syndrome | Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA; also known as Wegener’s granulomatosis) |
| Graves’ disease | Guillain-Barré syndrome (also known as Landry’s paralysis and Miller Fisher syndrome) |
| H | |
| Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis) | Hashimoto’s encephalitis or encephalopathy |
| Henoch-Schönlein purpura (also known as anaphylactoid purpura and purpura rheumatica) | Herpes gestationis (also known as gestational pemphigoid) |
| Horton disease (also known as giant cell arteritis, temporal arteritis, and cranial arteritis) | Hughes syndrome (also known as antiphospholipid syndrome) |
| Hypocortisolism (also known as hypoadrenalism, Addison’s disease, and chronic adrenal insufficiency) | Hypogammaglobulinemia |
| I | |
| Idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) | Idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating diseases (also known as demyelinating neuropathies) |
| Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF; also known as cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis and fibrosing alveolitis) | Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP; also known as thrombocytopenic purpura and autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura) |
| IgA nephropathy (also known as synpharyngitic glomerulonephritis and Berger’s disease) | IgG4-related sclerosing disease |
| Inclusion body myositis | Insulin-dependent diabetes (also known as type 1 diabetes and diabetes mellitus type 1) |
| Interstitial cystitis (also known as bladder pain syndrome) | |
| J | |
| Juvenile diabetes (also known as diabetes mellitus type 1, insulin-dependent diabetes, and type 1 diabetes) | Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (also known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis and Still’s disease) |
| K | |
| Kawasaki syndrome (also known as Kawasaki disease, lymph node syndrome, and mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome) | Kussmaul-Maier disease (also known as polyarteritis nodosa) |
| L | |
| Lambert-Eaton syndrome (also known as Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome) | Landry’s paralysis (also known as Miller Fisher syndrome and Guillain-Barré syndrome) |
| Leukocytoclastic vasculitis | Lichen planus |
| Lichen sclerosus | Ligneous conjunctivitis |
| Limited systemic sclerosis (also known as limited systemic scleroderma and CREST syndrome) | Linear IgA disease (LAD; also known as adult linear IgA disease) |
| Lupus (also known as systemic lupus erythematosus) | Lyme disease, chronic |
| Lymph node syndrome (also known as mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome and Kawasaki disease) | Lymphoid hamartoma (also known as angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia, Castleman’s disease, and giant lymph node hyperplasia) |
| M | |
| Marchiafava-Micheli syndrome (also known as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria) | Marie-Strümpell disease (also known as ankylosing spondylitis and Bekhterev’s disease) |
| Ménière’s disease | Microscopic polyangiitis (also known as microscopic polyarteritis) |
| Miller Fisher syndrome (also known as Guillain-Barré syndrome and Landry’s paralysis) | Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD; also known as Sharp’s syndrome) |
| Moersch-Woltman condition (also known as stiff person syndrome) | Mooren’s ulcer |
| Mucha-Habermann disease (also known as acute guttate parapsoriasis, acute parapsoriasis, acute pityriasis lichenoides, and parapsoriasis or pityriasis lichenoides et varioliformis acuta) | Mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (also known as lymph node syndrome and Kawasaki disease) |
| Multiple sclerosis | Myasthenia gravis |
| Myositis | |
| N | |
| Narcolepsy | Neuromyelitis optica (also known as Devic’s disease) |
| Neutropenia | |
| O | |
| Ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (also known as benign mucous membrane pemphigoid and scarring pemphigoid) | Optic neuritis |
| Ord’s thyroiditis | Ormond’s disease (also known as retroperitoneal fibrosis) |
| P | |
| Palindromic rheumatism | Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration |
| Parapsoriasis varioliformis (also known as Mucha-Habermann disease acute guttate parapsoriasis, acute parapsoriasis, acute pityriasis lichenoides, parapsoriasis or pityriasis lichenoides et varioliformis acuta) | Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH; also known as Marchiafava-Micheli syndrome) |
| Parry-Romberg syndrome (also known as progressive hemifacial atrophy) | Pars planitis (also known as peripheral uveitis) |
| Parsonage-Turner syndrome (also known as acute brachial neuropathy, acute brachial radiculitis, neuralgic amyotrophy, brachial neuritis, brachial plexus neuropathy, and brachial plexitis) | Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcus (PANDAS) |
| Pemphigus vulgaris | PEP syndrome (also known as POEMS syndrome, Crow-Fukase syndrome, and Takatsuki disease) |
| Peripheral neuropathy (also known as autoimmune peripheral neuropathy) | Perivenous encephalomyelitis |
| Pernicious anemia | POEMS syndrome (also known as Crow-Fukase syndrome, Takatsuki disease, and PEP syndrome) |
| Polyarteritis nodosa (also known as Kussmaul-Maier disease) | Polymyalgia rheumatica |
| Polymyositis (PM) | Postmyocardial infarction syndrome (also known as Dressler’s syndrome) |
| Postpericardiotomy syndrome | Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) |
| Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) | Progressive hemifacial atrophy (also known as Parry Romberg syndrome) |
| Psoriasis | Psoriatic arthritis (also known as arthritis psoriatica and arthropathic psoriasis) |
| Pure red cell aplasia (also known as erythroblastopenia) | Purpura rheumatic (also known as Henoch-Schönlein purpura and anaphylactoid purpura) |
| Pyoderma gangrenosum | |
| R | |
| Rasmussen’s encephalitis (also known as chronic focal encephalitis) | Raynaud’s phenomenon, disease, or syndrome |
| Reactive arthritis (also known as Reiter’s syndrome) | Reflex sympathetic dystrophy |
| Reiter’s syndrome (also known as reactive arthritis) | Relapsing polychondritis (also known as atrophic polychondritis and systemic chondromalacia) |
| Restless legs syndrome (also known as Willis-Ekbom disease) | Retinocochleocerebral vasculopathy (also known as Susac’s syndrome) |
| Retroperitoneal fibrosis (also known as Ormond’s disease) | Rheumatic fever |
| Rheumatoid arthritis | |
| S | |
| Sarcoidosis (also known as Besnier-Boeck disease) | Scarring pemphigoid (also known as ocular cicatricial pemphigoid and benign mucous membrane pemphigoid) |
| Schmidt’s syndrome (also known as autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2) | Schnitzler syndrome |
| Scleritis | Scleroderma |
| Sharp’s syndrome (also known as mixed connective tissue disease) | Sicca syndrome (also known as Sjögren’s syndrome) |
| Silk Road disease (also known as Behçet’s disease) | Sjögren’s syndrome (also known as Sicca syndrome) |
| Sperm and testicular autoimmunity | Spot baldness (also known as alopecia areata) |
| Stiff person syndrome (also known as Moersch-Woltman condition) | Still’s disease (also known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis) |
| Subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE; also known as endocarditis lenta) | Susac’s syndrome (also known as retinocochleocerebral vasculopathy) |
| Sydenham’s chorea (also known as chorea minor) | Sympathetic ophthalmia (SO) |
| Synpharyngitic glomerulonephritis (also known as Berger’s disease and IgA nephropathy) | Systemic chondromalacia (also known as relapsing polychondritis and atrophic polychondritis) |
| Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE; also known as lupus) | |
| T | |
| Takatsuki disease (also known as PEP syndrome, POEMS syndrome, and Crow-Fukase syndrome) | Takayasu’s arteritis or disease |
| Temporal arteritis (also known as giant cell arteritis, cranial arteritis, and Horton disease) | Thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP; also known as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura) |
| Tolosa-Hunt syndrome | Transverse myelitis |
| Type I diabetes (also known as diabetes mellitus type 1 and insulin-dependent diabetes) | Types 1, 2, and 3 autoimmune polyglandular syndrome |
| U | |
| Ulcerative colitis | Undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) |
| Urticarial vasculitis (also known as chronic urticaria as a manifestation of venulitis) | Uveitis (also known as autoimmune uveitis) |
| V | |
| Vasculitis | Vesiculobullous dermatosis |
| Vitiligo | |
| W | |
| Wegener’s granulomatosis (also known as granulomatosis with polyangiitis) | Willis-Ekbom disease (also known as restless leg syndrome) |
Healing Diets: Paleo or Crazy Sexy Vegan Diet for Health?
Healthy eating is one of the key parts of the health puzzle, but what exactly is healthy eating? You will certainly struggle to find any anecdotal stories of miraculous healing following the government’s recommendation for 5 a day. The Standard Western Diet is just too full of rubbish to allow most of us to gain the full potential benefits of any fruit and veg we may add. However, more radical approaches often have many people citing them as reasons for their recovery.
So in this blog I want to look at an overview of two popular diets that people often cite as a reason for their drastically improved health.
By the time someone has decided to come and see me they are keen to make serious changes to improve their health and are often looking for a food plan to follow, as part of their healing journey. Normally I recommend either Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet (CSD) or the Paleo approach followed by the likes of Chris Kresser’s Personal Paleo Diet. Both of these diets have anecdotal accounts of healing and being at either end of the spectrum at least one should seem possible for you to follow. Kris Carr’s approach is what she believes has helped her recover from Cancer. The CSD is certainly very close to the way Debbie ate while recovering from CFS/ME and an autoimmune thyroid problem. While at the other end of the dietary spectrum, the paleo approach outlined by Chris Kresser also has many advocates, especially those with autoimmune problems.
On the face of it these diets are two extremes; CSD being vegan and Paleo often touted as meat heavy. I’m talking about CSD rather than just vegan or vegetarian as you can be vegan/vegetarian and still have a very unhealthy diet packed full of soy and processed foods. Crazy Sexy Diet is aimed at improving health and happens to be vegan. The concepts are also different: In many ways the Crazy Sexy Diet is very modern; While on the other hand Paleo is an attempt to eat as our Paleolithic ancestors did in the belief that their hunter gatherer diet is optimal for our health because that is what we are designed to eat.
The key fact is that both diets have their supporters who claim huge benefits to their health by adopting their respective diet.
So lets do an overview of the approaches and start by comparing what the diets both exclude. I’ve done the comparison using Chris Kresser’s 30 day reset tweaked for those with autoimmune problems. as that seems fairly standard recommendation for a lot of health conditions.
Crazy Sexy Diet vs Paleo – What they Exclude
The diagram opposite shows the foods that are excluded, on the left from the Crazy Sexy Diet (CSD) and on the right from the suggested Paleo diet tweaked for autoimmune problems. In the middle cross over area are the foods excluded from both. You can click on it for a bigger version
As you can see there are actually more similarities than differences which may begin to explain why they can both seemingly facilitate healing. If the key concept is that some foods are damaging our health, then what is excluded may be more important than what is included.
Adding ‘nice things’ really is a joke as both diets can include truly delicious meals. It is the reaction of most people though to focus on what they will be missing rather than all of the nice things they can have.
Crazy Sexy Diet vs Paleo – What Do They Suggest I Eat?
Lets look now at what you can eat on each diet. Both diets once again contain an overlap of foods that the authors say are good to eat. The diagram on the right shows an overview. Both authors certainly agree more on what not to eat though. It is also worth mentioning that supplementation of B12 will be needed on a vegan diet; I’ve not included that as it not a food but rather a supplement.
The key thing here seems to be that the Crazy Sexy Diet gets a lot of protein from beans, nuts and legumes, where from a Paleo perspective meats offer a more nutrient dense source of protein.
Crazy Sexy Diet vs Paleo – The Contradictions
The source of protein is one of the big discrepancies between the two diets; it would seem that the Crazy Sexy Diet relies on a food source that is actually excluded from the Paleo approach and the Paleo diet relies on animal products that are excluded from the Crazy Sexy Diet.
Let’s look at at why beans and legumes excluded from a Paleo diet, when they hold such an important role in the CSD. This seems somewhat of a grey area. Some experts say they are excluded because of the phytic acid they contain. Phytic acid is said to block absorption of some nutrients like zinc. However, according to some sources it seems that beans and legumes have less phytic acid than some of the foods that are included in the Paleo approach. Compounds called lectins which cause leaky gut and inflammation are another reason for excluding beans and legumes, but it seems that research suggests most of that is destroyed by heat and cooking. FODMAPs* are another reason, but then there are other fruits and vegetables that contain FODMAPS that are not automatically excluded. Chris Kessner seems to exclude them because they may cause problems and more importantly they are less nutrient dense than animal products, and those nutrients they do contain may also be less bio-available.
Time to move onto to why animal products are excluded from the Crazy Sexy Diet. Two main reasons are glaringly obvious; firstly the inhumane treatment of factory farmed animals, though obviously this is a moral standpoint rather than a health based one. Secondly the research between fat, red meat and cancer. On the face of things this would be damning to the Paleo approach, but when you look at the research there are potential flaws. A lot of Paleo supporters have pointed out that the study linking red meat to cancer seems to include a lot of meat eaters who are overweight, smoke and are inactive. The quality of meat eaten is also ignored and those following the Paleo approach would agree that factory farmed produce is bad for our health.
The diets also disagree on Fats; Crazy Sexy Diet is promoting that saturated fats are bad for us and lead to cholesterol. This seems to be a rather outdated view point though. The Paleo diet promotes saturated fat as good energy source that we were designed to use.
In terms of ethos the Crazy Sexy Diet’s thrust is eating clean and ‘alkaline’ foods for detoxing and health. Where the thrust of the Paleo approach is to eat nutritionally dense foods that allow the gut to heal which they believe is key to correct immune function. That is a brief overview of ethos and really needs a more comprehensive post in it’s own right, which will follow soon 🙂
Crazy Sexy Diet vs Paleo – Where They Agree
Both diets also agree that inflammation is linked to many diseases and that the fatty acid omega 3 is very important for an anti-inflammatory diet. They also promote eating ‘clean’ in terms of reducing toxic load from pesticides and fertilisers etc. We also saw that both approaches agree on a lot of the foods to be excluded in a healthy diet. Although this paragraph seems short, in reality I think there are still more important aspects they have in common than not.
In Summary
This blog is an brief overview rather than an in depth comparison because so many people are completely unaware of what these diets involve and how they compare. Eating healthily is is confusing, with advocates on all sides claiming scientific reasons behind their choices and those choices do often conflict. These two specific diets are no different. However, the worst thing you could do is continue eating a standard western diet because you’re confused. I have little doubt what these two diets agree to exclude is crucial in the healing process. I will be looking at both approaches in greater depths over the coming weeks, but I would love to hear your comments of how you got on with either/both approaches below 🙂
Pete
References
Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!
Your Personal Paleo Diet: Feel and look great by eating the foods that are ideal for your body
The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body
Further Reading
Raw Vegan, Blood Type O, Paleo, Low Carb High Fat Diets – what do they have in common?”
*FODMAP is an acronym for “fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides and monosaccharides and polyols,” which are basically a group of highly fermentable, short- and medium-chain carbohydrates that can cause digestive problems such as wind and bacterial overgrowth due to being poorly absorbed by some people.
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Next →
Choose to Thrive 