Tag Archives: healthy gut

Questions & Answers

Pau D’Arco And The Gut

Taheebo or Pau D’Arco comes from a treat found in various parts of the rain forest in South and Central America.

Some groups of indigenous peoples in South America have been using Pau D’Arco fo hundreds if not thousand-plus years. The inner bark of this tree has been used to treat many different diseases, including cancer. It was also used for snake bites, fever, constipation, dysentery, gut cleansing, skin problems, and vaginal yeast infections.

In order for Pau D’Arco to be effective, it needs to have a lapachol content of between two and four percent.

You may read that Pau D’Arco is toxic. But I don’t believe that. I think the studies that showed toxicity were using megadoses. I do believe that there is a lot of poor quality supplements out there. That’s why you need to do the footwork to find the real deal. It will be difficult, but worth the effort.

Pau D’Arco is a fantastic herb for treating yeast and fungus. Once you make a batch, you can store it for weeks and weeks. It lasts a long time because it’s a natural product that seems impervious to getting bacteria or any other infection.

Further readings:

The Pau D’Arco should have a nice cinnamony color and a characteristic taste. It’s the inner bark that you want, and it will cost a pretty penny. Once you have acquired good quality Pau D’Arco, put about two or three tablespoons in four cups of plain, filtered, pure water. Don’t use tap water and don’t use an aluminum pan. Use a proper stainless steel, iron, or glass saucepan to heat the mixture. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for about twenty minutes.

Once you’ve finished simmering, top it up with water to bring it back up to its original level. When it’s cool, strain the liquid through a piece of cheesecloth. Store in the refrigerator.

You need about one quarter to one cup per day. For cancer, one cup is indicated. But for digestive problems, a quarter to half a cup per day is fine. If the taste is too strong, feel free to add some water to your daily dose.

Lapacho contains phenolic compounds that have been shown to be very potent against many strains of Candida. It’s also really good for vaginal yeast infections.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Managing Cravings While On A Diet

How can you reduce cravings while you’re on a diet?

There are a number of ways to keep your diet on track.

1. Work out a plan beforehand: Make sure you know where you’re headed and what you want to achieve on a diet? Is it a lifelong commitment or a temporary change in habits? I think it’s a great idea to make a commitment to healthy food and activity with a goal six to twelve months in the future.

2. Clean up your pantry: Get rid of the food in your house that’s a temptation. That means junk food, crappy food, and the food that you can’t stop eating no matter how full you are.

3. Make a list of the healthy, tasty foods you’re going to eat on your diet: You need to go shopping and stock your kitchen with food that will help achieve your health goals. If you do have a snack attack, you want to be able to grab a piece of fruit or a small serving of nuts rather than a sleeve of cookies. One of my favorite healthy snacks is a small package of seaweed. Seaweed is a great way to get valuable minerals into your diet.

4. Make sure you eat enough protein: Eating protein is a key factor in reducing cravings. You need to eat protein with most meals. You could opt for chicken, fish, legumes, nuts, hard-boiled eggs, and seeds, to name just a few options.

Further readings:

5. Chose satisfying snacks: A common snack for me it will be an avocado because I’ve got two avocado trees. One good size avocado can allay hunger for a few hours.

6. Eat at regular times: Skipping or irregular meals can contribute to getting overly hungry and trigger cravings. If you want to reduce cravings, I think eating a breakfast that includes protein makes good sense.

7. Drink several glasses of water between meals: Drinking water in combination with a high fiber diet will leave you feeling full for extended periods. A couple of small pieces of cooked sweet potato and a glass of water will leave you feeling as if you’ve had a two-pound steak. You won’t be hungry for a long time.

8. Catch the cravings early: When you start thinking about the pantry or refrigerator, chose a different activity. It could be a walk with the dog or a stroll on your own. If you distract yourself from a craving, often it goes away within five or ten minutes.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Too Many Calories, Not Enough Nutrients

The world produces enough food to supply a lot of people. If you look at American, Europe, and other western nations, there are ample high protein and high-fat foods. I once read a study that shows there is a large enough food supply to provide everyone in developed nations with five to six thousands calories a day, if not more.

And yet, despite this abundance, there’s a concern about the micronutrient content of the standard American diet (SAD). The problem lies with a number of factors, including how food is distributed, how it’s processed, and the mechanization of harvesting.

The irony is that while we are swimming in an ocean of food, people still lack micronutrients. Nutrients like folate, vitamin A, vitamin C, and trace elements are getting harder and harder to access.

Folate is one of the most essential B vitamins for brain and heart health. Even the maturation of red blood cells requires sufficient folate. That’s one of the reasons several foods, such as bread, are fortified with folate.

Further readings:

I believe that one of the reasons for the high rates of cancer in Western countries is that we are eating foods that are too rich in protein and fat and not rich enough in essential vitamins and minerals.

Everybody can do something about that. If you look at folic acid, it’s found at high levels in dark green, leafy vegetables, which are easy to grow for many people. Even if you just grow a few plants, you can now supply yourself with some of the folate that your brain desperately needs.

I think one of the reasons we see so much depression, anxiety, and suicide in modern society is that we lack the nutrition needed to keep our mental health in working order.

Many people I’ve seen in my clinic were magnesium deficient. Some also lacked calcium or vitamin C. These clients upgraded their diets to ensure they were getting enough essential nutrients and ended up feeling so much better.

If you suffer from depression or anxiety, and you have a poor quality diet, you have the potential to make a big difference to your mental health. Don’t just look at the keto or carnivore diets. Thinks about the trace elements and vitamins you need, and design your meals and snacks accordingly.

Sources:

Questions & Answers

Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea: Words of Caution

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea is very common.

I’ve seen many people over the years who’ve developed diarrhea after using antibiotics. Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

An interesting study by Dr. Lisa Dawson and colleagues reported that C. diff produces a compound called Para-cresol. This chemical inhibits a wide range of microorganisms. By dispersing surrounding bacteria, Para-cresol opens the door for C. diff to colonize readily.

There aren’t many species of gut bacteria that produce Para-cresol, but C. diff is one of them. As a result, C. diff has a competitive edge in the gut.

Further readings:

Candida does something similar. It creates various toxins, including gliotoxin. These toxins are almost like shards of glass – no matter how much you try and clean them up, there’s still some left behind.

Gliotoxin can travel through the bloodstream and cause a lot of problems.
It’s defense mechanisms like gliotoxin and Para-cresol that have allowed yeast and bacteria to survive for thousands, if not millions, of years.

To my mind, the best solution is not to take antibiotics in the first place unless absolutely necessary. I think that over time, scientists and the medical field will come to see that the collateral damage caused by antibiotics is intolerable. There has to be a better way.

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: