Holistic Realm Wellness

Depression, cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, dementia, allergies, asthma, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disease, and more are all inflammatory diseases. ⁣
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That begs the question, what is causing all this rampant inflammation? It’s mostly our food—too many inflammatory foods and not enough anti-inflammatory foods. ⁣
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While there are many ways food can trigger inflammation, food is also the most powerful source of anti-inflammatory compounds. Many of those 25,000 + phytochemicals are powerful anti-inflammatories. The polyphenols in plant foods are among nature's best inflammation-fighting compounds. Where is the best place to find these compounds? At the end of the rainbow — a rainbow of bright pigments and colors found in plant foods, red, green, yellow, orange, purple. Extra virgin olive oil contains oleocanthal, for example, which activates the same anti-inflammatory receptors as ibuprofen without all the side effects. ⁣
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Spices are anti-inflammatory powerhouses, including turmeric, ginger, and rosemary. Meat cooked with spices neutralizes potential inflammation. Omega 3 fats found in wild foods, fish, seafood, and some nuts and seeds are also powerful anti-inflammatories. ⁣
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Mushrooms including Sh*take, Maitake, Reishi, Chaga, Turkey tail, and Cordyceps contain powerful immune regulating and anti-cancer compounds called polysaccharides. And foods rich in vitamins and minerals boost immunity and reduce inflammation, including vitamin C, zinc, selenium, and vitamin D. Vitamin D alone regulates hundreds of genes that affect inflammation and immunity. So a meal of guavas and parsley (vitamin C), pumpkin seeds and oysters (zinc), Brazil nuts and sardines (selenium), and porcini mushrooms and herring (vitamin D) is an immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory super meal. Not sure what you could make with all those ingredients, but you get the idea!⁣
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The best thing you can do for your health is to cut down or cut out inflammatory foods and increase anti-inflammatory foods starting today.

It turns out the microbiome is likely the most important regulator of our overall health. There are 100 trillion microbes in you, 10 times the number of your own cells, and 100 times your DNA. We have 20,000 genes. Your microbiome contains 2 to 5 million microbial genes, all making proteins, cell-signaling molecules, messengers of health or disease. Some scientists estimate that a third to half of all the molecules in our blood come from microbial metabolites. They interact with our genes, hormones, immune system, brain chemistry, and every single process in our biology. Our gut microbes also provide us with essential vitamins: vitamin K and biotin.⁣
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Sadly, our gut microbiome ain’t what it used to be. We eat gut-busting foods, live a gut-busting lifestyle, and take gut-busting drugs. Want to grow toxic w**ds in your gut? Feed them a processed diet high in sugar and starch, food additives, and the microbiome-destroying w**d killer glyphosate, used on 70 percent of all crops. ⁣
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The bad bugs drive inflammation, which is at the root of almost all chronic diseases and obesity. Sixty percent of your immune system is in your gut, right under a one-cell- thin layer of gut lining.⁣
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A few simple steps to fixing your gut are: ⁣
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1. W**d. Follow the Pegan Diet, and remove all sugars, artificial sweeteners, starchy foods, gluten and wheat, and processed foods. You may need a functional medicine practitioner if you have bad bacterial or yeast overgrowth or parasites.⁣
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2. Seed. Eat probiotic-rich foods like tempeh, sauerkraut, miso, and kimchi. Or take a daily probiotic.⁣
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3. Feed. Eat prebiotic- and fiber-rich foods from garlic, onions, avocado, and green leafy vegetables. If you have severe bacterial overgrowth, introduce these foods slowly. Lightly cooking vegetables makes them easier to digest. Steam, sauté, or stir-fry instead of eating them raw. ⁣
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Your gut microbial ecosystem must be healthy for you to be healthy. When your gut bacteria are out of balance — when you have too many pathogenic bacteria and not enough healthy bacteria —you get sick.

Eat protein. To avoid the blood sugar imbalances that feed bad gut bacteria, eat protein with every meal, even at breakfast. This will help you to avoid sudden increases in your blood sugar. Eat clean and sustainably raised animal protein, like fish, turkey, chicken, and lean cuts of lamb, and plenty of vegetable protein such as nuts, beans, seeds, and tofu.

Eat high-fiber foods. Whole grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruit all contain beneficial fiber that feed the good gut bacteria.

Don’t be afraid of healthy fat. Increase omega-3 fatty acids by eating cold-water wild salmon, sardines, herring, flaxseeds, and even seaw**d. Use more grass-fed or organic animal products.

Eat at least 8 to 10 servings of colorful fruits and vegetables a day, which contain disease fighting vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory molecules.

Repopulate your digestive tract with good bacteria.Take very high-potency probiotics (look for at least 25 billion live CFU’s from diversified strains of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Saccharomyces boulardii), twice a day for one to two months. Start slowly and observe how the probiotics affect your gut. In some cases, certain individuals may need to delay probiotics until their gut is more intact. Eating fermented foods like kimchi are also great ways to repopulate healthy gut flora.

Reduce stress. Believe it or not, stress affects our gut bacteria. Try a stress-reduction technique like meditation, deep breathing, and yoga are all great ways to reduce stress.

Not too long ago, a group of doctors and public health experts in a Michigan General Hospital noticed something striking: Many of the patients who routinely showed up in the emergency room requiring the most medical services were also the patients who seemed to be the most nutritionally vulnerable.

They were patients with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and other largely food-related chronic diseases. For hospitals and health insurers, these are among the highest cost, highest-need patients. Working with a local nonprofit group called Community Services, the doctors decided to launch a study to see whether providing these patients with nutritious meals would have an impact on their healthcare outcomes.

The researchers recruited Medicaid and Medicare patients and split them into different groups. One group received regular deliveries of healthy meals that were made from scratch and designed by a registered dietitian: Each meal contained ingredients like locally caught seafood and locally grown Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, zucchinis, fruits and other fresh produce that nearby farms donated. Another group received nutritious meals, but they weren’t specifically tailored to their individual medical needs. The third group did not receive any of the nutritious meal deliveries. What the study found in the ensuing weeks was astonishing. The two groups that had nutritious meals had fewer hospital visits, ultimately resulting in a 16 percent reduction in their health care costs. And that was after deducting meal expenses.

The average monthly medical costs for a patient in the nutrition group shrank to about $843—much lower than the roughly $1,413 in medical costs for each patient in the control group.

These types of groups recognize what our federal government sadly does not: To tackle the crisis, our national food policies must be aligned with our healthcare policies. Instead of just treating rampant chronic diseases, we have to start preventing them and we can do that with our people.
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Mitochondria are key energy sources for our bodies. They are tiny factories housed within our cells that take the foods we eat and the oxygen we breathe and convert them into energy.⁣⁣⁣
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That energy is called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, and it is used to support every function in our bodies.⁣⁣⁣
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Each cell holds hundreds or thousands of mitochondria; they are found in greater concentrations in active organs and tissues like the heart, brain, and muscles.⁣⁣⁣
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In fact, we have more than 100,000 trillion mitochondria in our bodies, and each one contains 17,000 little assembly lines for making ATP. Mitochondria are where metabolism happens.⁣⁣⁣
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So, when your mitochondria aren’t working properly, your metabolism runs less efficiently and can even practically shut down. Problems occur because these powerful energy producers are VERY sensitive and easily damaged. When they are damaged, we suffer from low energy, fatigue, memory loss, pain, rapid aging, and more.⁣⁣⁣
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Fatigue is the most common symptom of poorly functioning mitochondria, and it is the reason we tend to feel pooped as we age.⁣⁣⁣
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Mitochondria are really important, but unfortunately many things can damage them, mainly through uncontrolled oxidative stress. That may sound complicated, but in reality we are all familiar with “oxidative stress”, even if some of us don’t know what the term means.⁣

Parasitic infection can result in an individual experiencing a range of symptoms from digestive issues to muscle ache, joint pain, skin rashes, and more; it can also signal issues with a weakened immune system but some types of parasites are not harmful, in-fact they help with digestion.
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