Tag Archives: candida

Questions & Answers

The Health Benefits Of Spanish Black Radish

Black radish is also known as Raphanus sativus variation niger.

You may know radish as in the red kind of radish. I like to grow radishes, but I also like to grow carrots, including dark carrots. The old carrots that were grown thousands of years ago are a dark black color and even purple color, these are extremely good for your health. Today carrots are orange. I also may mention to you that carrots are orange because the Dutch bred them to be orange for the Dutch royal family, which is an orange color.

Black radish is very good for you. Black and purple pigmented vegetables, like purple lettuce, are very good for you.

Radishes taste a bit peppery. Radishes belong to the Brassica family, so they are related to kale, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Related articles:

Brassicas contain a compound called glucosinolates. In the gut, enzymes change glucosinolates into isothiocyanate. Isothiocyanate accelerates detoxification in the liver. It’s even been shown that isothiocyanate can detoxify certain cancer cell lines in the liver.

When they introduce cancer experimentally into rats or mice and then give the animals isothiocyanate, the rate of cancer is reduced. The claim isn’t that isothiocyanate cures cancer. The claim is that eating brassicas, including black radish, may help prevent cancer.

It’s also been shown that people who consume radish regularly have a much lower incidence of getting gallstones. The chemicals in radish stimulate globet cells (the mucous producing cells) and other cells in your gut that function to excrete waste. In other words, radish acts as a natural detoxifier of your small and large bowel.

Try and add more radish to your diet. Radishes are very easy to grow. They’ve got a nice crunch and are great for oral health. People who eat radishes and related vegetables tend to have sweeter breath and better digestion. Why not eat a radish instead of a chicken nugget? It’s a lot better for you.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Glutamine And Gut Health

L-glutamine is an amino acid found in many different types of foods. Glutamine is found in chicken or bone broth, brassicas, and high protein foods like fish.

Many bodybuilders and athletes use glutamine because it boosts muscle and bone growth.
Brain function benefits from glutamine as well. Glutamine is one of the primary fuels for enterocytes, the cells that line the gut. I have seen studies that demonstrate glutamine boosting the immune system by increasing secretory IgA.

On the other hand, I have had clients who experienced significant side effects from L-glutamine. So, don’t just jump straight into the water. Put your big toe in first, okay?
If you’re going to take glutamine, and you’ve got GI issues such as leaky gut, IBS, Candida, or abdominal discomfort, don’t rush into taking large doses of L-glutamine. Instead, start with small quantities, and take it from there.

Related articles:

I recommend that glutamine be taken with protein foods rather than an empty stomach. The average dose for many people is between 500 and 2,000 milligrams per day. Some websites recommend megadoses from 30 grams up to 80 grams per day. I consider that very foolhardy. Mega dosing on any supplement just doesn’t make sense, regardless of what it is.
With glutamine, start small, build up, watch the bowel motions, and use the eyeball test. Look into the toilet and see what the stool’s doing. Keep track of your gut comfort after starting glutamine.

When you introduce glutamine into your diet as a supplement, don’t start10 other things at the same time. Take glutamine, for example, at a rate of say 500 milligrams per day for several days, build up to 1,000, watch the stool, watch the gut symptoms, and watch the food sensitivities. If you start noticing improvements or changes, you may well be getting a good benefit from it. You could slowly step it up to 1,000 or 2,000 milligrams per day.

As per usual, if something benefits you, take it. If it doesn’t, get rid of it. It’s not a dietary necessity. But for people pushing their body hard through physical training and eating a lot of food, there is definitely a benefit from glutamine.

With regards to leaky gut, I’ve seen glutamine result in significant improvement. If the leaky gut comes along with SIBO, parasites, or Candida, it may be hard to tolerate the glutamine. In that case, start with a cleanse, eradicate the gut microbe imbalances, and then undergo a trial of glutamine.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Why Eating Too Much Fruit Isn’t Good For Your Gut

Some patients I see eat way too much fruit. Some people eat ten pieces of fruit per day. I think that’s far too much.

Eating anything in excess is not good for the body. I’ve always maintained that consuming particular foods is fine, like vegetable consumption or meat consumption, but it should be in balance with other kinds of foods.

I’m not here to argue the different merits of diets, you know, whether you are a vegan or whether you are a paleo person. This article is about the downsides of eating too much fruit.
If you eat excessive amounts of fruit, you’re going to be overloaded with fructose. Fructose consumed in abundance can upset intestinal permeability and encourage the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut.

Some studies have shown that large amounts of fructose can cause liver damage. Further, people who eat far too much fruit tend to have lower Bacteroides levels. At the same time, proteobacteria levels tend to go up.

Related articles:

The microbiome often reflects the type of food a person east. For example, Prevotella bacteria thrive in the gut when a person eats a lot of fiber, particularly vegetable fiber.

Bacteroides bacteria prefer a mixed kind of a diet, especially if there’s a bit of meat in the diet. A healthy person will have a balance of different classes of bacteria.

If a person starts overeating one particular food, the result can be a bacterial imbalance in the gut. That’s why my motto is “Everything in moderation, nothing in excess” when it comes to healthy foods.

Of course, this motto doesn’t apply to unhealthy foods like high-fructose corn syrup. Up to 60% of foods now in US supermarkets contain high-fructose corn syrup. Avoid that substance as much as you can.

I am in favor of fruit, but I’m definitely not in favor of ten pieces of fruit a day. Definitely not.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Sleep And Gut Flora: What’s The Connection?

Recent research conducted on mice has demonstrated a significant effect on gut flora in response to sleep deprivation. The impact was particularly strong with circadian rhythm disruption, which would be similar to shift work.

In the same study, intestinal permeability increased in response to sleep deprivation. The take-home message is that if you want a healthy bowel flora, you need to have a good sleep.
Sleep, or the lack thereof, is linked with several different health problems. So, it’s no surprise that sleep deprivation has also been linked to alterations in the gut flora and intestinal permeability.

My recommendation for people who do shift work is always, try and get out of that crazy situation. If you can’t avoid doing shift work, you find a way to ensure that you get sufficient sleep on a daily basis.

Further readings:

For those people working irregular hours for the long-term, I recommend having periodic stool analyses. The stool tests will document changes to gut flora over time.
Genova diagnostic offers a good stool test, which shows all the different types of classes of gut bacteria.

The answer to the question of whether sleep deprivation has an effect on the gut micro biodynamic is a resounding, “Yes!”.

No doubt, over time, there will be even more studies that validate this finding. Hopefully, research will be able to tell us which strains of bacteria are being affected and the subsequent impact on human health.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Diatomaceous Earth: What You Need To Know

Some people claim that diatomaceous earth is good for killing and removing parasites from the body. However, it’s all anecdotal.

What is diatomaceous earth? It’s an algae that lived millions of years ago and left a silica shell behind.

Silica is quite an interesting mineral that’s extremely hard for the body to absorb. Diatomaceous earth doesn’t mix well with fluids, especially inside the body, so it’s pretty useless as a silica supplement. There’s also no scientific evidence that shows that it removes parasites. The studies I did look at, particularly one from 2010, involving animals and diatomaceous earth, were inconclusive.

Some people recommend diatomaceous earth for a wide range of purposes: high blood pressure, AIDS, cancer, everything. It cures baldness; it cures infertility, it cures mortgage problems, it cures every flipping thing. Well, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. It’s all anecdotal. I’m sure if I gave you a cup of sand to swallow and drink, you’d say you’d feel a certain way as well.

Related articles:

Remember, just because everybody else does it, it doesn’t mean to say that it’s necessarily good or it’s going to work. I’m not a huge fan of diatomaceous earth, but if you think it works for you, then maybe it works for you.

Be very careful about inhaling diatomaceous earth because it can wreck your lungs. Very fine-grain silica causes the lung disease silicosis. Thousands of people die every year from silicosis. You don’t even want to breathe in silica.

There is food grade diatomaceous earth and filter grade. Filter grade diatomaceous earth is known to remove heavy metals from water. People then automatically assume diatomaceous earth will remove heavy metal from their bodies. It doesn’t work like that. Don’t fall for the hype.

Diatomaceous earth does have its applications, don’t get me wrong. But, when it comes to human health and killing parasites, I wouldn’t fall for the hype.

Sources: