Your Wellness Lifestyle Starts Here
Today’s healthcare system is not about health. It’s about selling a never-ending series of tests, drugs, and procedures to people. “Alternative health” is about selling different tests, supplements, and procedures to people. In order to maximize sales, tests and treatments need to be marketed to the general population, with no consideration about whether or not most people are actually candidates for or can benefit from the services promoted.
I am in the middle of reading "the Myth of Normal, Trama, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture" by Gabor Mate (Ma-tay). He confirms what I already have learned and teach, and his insights into the state of our current healthcare system is far encompassing. He writes "I have come to believe that behind the entire epidemic of chronic afflictions, mental and physical, that beset our current moment, something is amiss in our culture itself, generating both the rash of ailments we are suffering and. crucially, the ideological blind spots that keep us from seeing our predicament clearly."
If you have attended my Emotional Eating class, you learned how trauma affects our health in body, mind, and spirit. Mate explores this area in depth, citing numerous studies going back to the 1930s. He also includes case studies from real people proving the effects of trauma experiences and disease.
In the United States, the richest country in history and the epicenter of the globalized economic system, 60 percent of adults have a chronic disorder such as high blood pressure or diabetes, and over 40 percent have two or more such conditions. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. These are the people who are stuck in the "medical mill" and have accepted their disease because "it runs in the family".
When asked, most people state that they want to be lean and healthy. So why aren’t most people lean and healthy? One factor is misinformation – most of what people hear, read, or are told about diet, health, and medicine is either incorrect or incomplete. But even after being provided with access to accurate and complete information, many people remain overweight and unhealthy. Why? These thinking and behavior patterns are difficult to change. Most of the time we are not aware of these patterns, which results in both confusion and frustration when they have the same unwanted experience (failure to lose weight and/or improve health) again and again.
How do we recognize and change these patterns? First, we must realize the connection between body, mind, and spirit. If one of these areas is not functioning properly, it affects the others. We are a complete being. "What happens in our cells, happens in our souls". Empower yourself to make changes and learn how to be an informed consumer when it comes to health care.
Start with acknowledgement. Admit that you are not moving forward because of your internal dialog and perceptions, not external forces beyond your control.
Become more aware of your thought patterns and change them. Your goal is to change your outlook to one of positive expectation. Remember that for things to change, you’ve got to change. In the absence of significant internal change, things will most likely remain the same.
Figure out the things you need in order to change your outcomes and then relentlessly pursue them. This can include therapy, a support system, reading books, gaining knowledge, finding new doctors, spending less time with some people, and changing your mindset.
Notice when you are starting to resist. Then remind yourself that resistance to doing things differently is what keeps you stuck where you are.
Work on motivation. Identify the reasons you want things to be different than they are now. People with strong reasons for change are more successful in achieving almost any goal than people who have not identified specifically why they want to change. Inadequate motivation leads to failure.
Start practicing self-control. Remind yourself that you really can think differently, change your mindset, make different decisions, and have different outcomes if you choose to do so.
Evaluate yourself and take responsibility for fixing things if necessary. If 90 days from now things are still the same, figure out why and then do something about it.
Decide to live a deliberate life, not a life that happens by default. In the absence of a specific plan for yourself, including a plan for your health, you will be forced to settle for whatever happens to you by chance. Most of the time this does not work out so well. So design your life according to what you want, and then do the things necessary to have it.
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
Sources: Gabor Mate, Pam Popper
Your Wellness Lifestyle Starts Here
Did you know the human body is specifically designed to extract and utilize nutrients from food? If we truly needed vitamins pills and fortified foods for survival, our species would have become extinct a long time ago.
A few vitamins and nutrients are commonly found in supplements and fortified foods, but there are tens of thousands of nutrients in foods and new ones are still being discovered. These include thousands of flavonoids, hundreds of carotenoids, and tens of thousands of phytochemicals. Nutrients as they occur naturally in food exist in complexes, which are comprised of several nutrients in synergistic form. These are all combined in endless numbers of combinations and delivered to humans in nature’s perfect packages – food!
Nutrients in food work together to supply energy and to facilitate an endless number of biochemical reactions in the over 30 trillion cells that comprise our bodies. Studies have shown that nutrient needs vary from person to person and from day to day based on the environment and changing circumstances.
Foods contain the full spectrum of nutritional complexes and eating them allows the body to choose what it needs, and excrete that which is not needed, a process known as selective absorption. Consuming isolated nutrients leaves the body no choice – it must metabolize what is ingested, which can mean taking the missing co-factors that would normally be "packaged" with these nutrients from the tissues and organs of the body in order to create a recognizable complex. (Stephen Wood, Science News, 1994 July;146(1):3)
Did you know that medical journals are filled with tens of thousands of articles on supplements? Most show disappointing results – the supplement fails to deliver the promised result – but a surprising number report negative side effects. Some studies have even been stopped early because those taking the supplements were worse off than those taking the placebo.
A Cochrane review of 67 randomized trials including over 232,000 people taking antioxidants found that the pills were worthless and added this caution, "Vitamin A, beta-carotene, and vitamin E may increase mortality. Future randomized trials could evaluate the potential effects of vitamin C and selenium for primary and secondary prevention. Such trials should be closely monitored for potential harmful effects. Antioxidant supplements need to be considered medicinal products and should undergo sufficient evaluation before marketing. (Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. "Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008(2). Art. No: CD007176. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007176).
Did you know that most people have not been shown how to lower cholesterol properly? For example, a high-fat diet, regardless of the dietary source of the fat – will elevate plasma cholesterol and contribute to the progression of coronary artery disease. Rudel L, Parks J, Sawyer J. "Compared with Dietary Monounsaturated and Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat Protects African Green Monkeys from Coronary Artery Arteriosclerosis." Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (Impact Factor: 6). 01/1996; 15(12):2101-10.
Blankenhorn, D.H. et al, "The Influence of Diet on the Appearance of New Lesions in Human Coronary Arteries." JAMA March 23, 1990. 263(12):1646-1652
Degirolamo C, Rudel L. "Dietary Monounsaturated Fatty Acids Appear Not to Provide Cardioprotection." Curr Atherscler Rep 2010 Nov;12(6):391-396 A diet that includes high amounts of animal food, including fish, also contributes to higher plasma cholesterol levels.
Blankenhorn, D.H. et al, "The Influence of Diet on the Appearance of New Lesions in Human Coronary Arteries." JAMA March 23, 1990. 263(12):1646-1652
Degirolamo C, Rudel L. "Dietary Monounsaturated Fatty Acids Appear Not to Provide Cardioprotection." Curr Atherscler Rep 2010 Nov;12(6):391-396 A diet that includes high amounts of animal food, including fish, also contributes to higher plasma cholesterol levels.
Did you know that Vitamin C when taken in supplement form instead of consumed in food often acts as a pro-oxidant (chemicals that induce oxidative stress)? Best to rethink this supplement for daily use. It’s likely that the B vitamins are useless unless B12 is taken due to either a diagnosed deficiency or after adopting an exclusively plant-based diet.
Did you know that Vitamin D toxicity can cause hypercalcemia and acute kidney injury? A recent case report showed a 25-year-old man had taken 50,000 IU of vitamin D daily for seven months in response to diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency. He stopped taking it two weeks before admission to a hospital. At time of admission his serum levels were 126 ng/dL. Twenty-nine days after the last dose, his serum level rose to 492 ng/mL and 81 days after last dose the level was 274 ng/ml.
Vitamin D levels can remain elevated for months after high-dose vitamin D supplementation is stopped. It’s stored in the fat tissue, so accumulation – and toxicity - may not show – at least not immediately – in serum levels.
Vitamin D levels can remain elevated for months after high-dose vitamin D supplementation is stopped. It’s stored in the fat tissue, so accumulation – and toxicity - may not show – at least not immediately – in serum levels.
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
www.lizfattore.com
Your Wellness Lifestyle Starts Here
In addition to causing significant side effects, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are not very effective much of the time. PPI-refractory gastroesophageal reflux, or reflux that does not respond to drugs, affects about 30% of the patients who have GERD. Almost half of these patients report that continual belching is a problem. Belching is not only a common symptom of GERD, but it can also increase the number and severity of reflux episodes.
An interesting study showed that breathing exercises improved belching and symptoms in patients with PPI-refractory GERD. The study included patients diagnosed with GERD who also reported belching, heartburn, and/or regurgitation even after taking PPIs daily for 12 weeks. Fifteen patients were taught a standardized diaphragmatic breathing exercise protocol, while twenty-one controls were placed on a waitlist. All of the subjects completed questionnaires at the start of the study, after breathing therapy, and then 4 months after therapy ended. The 21 control patients completed an additional questionnaire after their waitlist period, and then were also given breathing therapy.
During the intervention period, 80% of the patients taught better breathing techniques had significant reductions in belching frequency, as compared to only 19% of control patients. Intervention patients also experienced significantly greater reductions in reflux symptoms and more improvement in quality of life than the controls. Patients with the worst symptoms showed the most improvement, and the positive changes were sustained at 4 months after the termination of therapy.
Diaphragmatic breathing was the method used for this intervention, and anyone can learn how to do it. It’s defined as deep breathing that involves contraction of the diaphragm, the muscle located at the base of the lungs. There are hundreds of online videos that demonstrate the practice, but here are some simple instructions:
Most people are "shallow breathers," which means that they use the upper chest to breathe. This results in overuse of muscles in the neck and upper body, and underuse of the diaphragm. Shallow breathing is exacerbated during stressful situations or when people become anxious. Regular practice can make diaphragmatic breathing, a more energizing and restorative form of breathing, the default method. One way to get more practice is to take yoga classes, which almost always include a focus on breathing.
Most of us do not think about breathing much because we do it naturally. But learning better breathing techniques can improve your health in many ways.
Ong AML, Chua LTT, Khor CJL, Asokkumar R, Namasivayam V, Wang YT. "Diaphragmatic Breathing Reduces Belching and Proton Pump Inhibitor Refractory Gastroesophageal Reflux Symptoms." Clin Gastroentol Hepatol 2018 Mar;16(3):407-416.e2
An interesting study showed that breathing exercises improved belching and symptoms in patients with PPI-refractory GERD. The study included patients diagnosed with GERD who also reported belching, heartburn, and/or regurgitation even after taking PPIs daily for 12 weeks. Fifteen patients were taught a standardized diaphragmatic breathing exercise protocol, while twenty-one controls were placed on a waitlist. All of the subjects completed questionnaires at the start of the study, after breathing therapy, and then 4 months after therapy ended. The 21 control patients completed an additional questionnaire after their waitlist period, and then were also given breathing therapy.
During the intervention period, 80% of the patients taught better breathing techniques had significant reductions in belching frequency, as compared to only 19% of control patients. Intervention patients also experienced significantly greater reductions in reflux symptoms and more improvement in quality of life than the controls. Patients with the worst symptoms showed the most improvement, and the positive changes were sustained at 4 months after the termination of therapy.
Diaphragmatic breathing was the method used for this intervention, and anyone can learn how to do it. It’s defined as deep breathing that involves contraction of the diaphragm, the muscle located at the base of the lungs. There are hundreds of online videos that demonstrate the practice, but here are some simple instructions:
Just place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your belly just below the rib cage. Breathe in slowly and deeply, while your chest remains relatively still and your belly rises. Your rib cage may expand as well. Then exhale through your mouth while contracting the abdominal muscles. The belly should return to its original position.
In addition to helping with GERD, deep breathing can slow the heartbeat, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress and anxiety. The technique can also help patients with COPD, who generally have weaker diaphragms, to take in more air with less effort. Most people are "shallow breathers," which means that they use the upper chest to breathe. This results in overuse of muscles in the neck and upper body, and underuse of the diaphragm. Shallow breathing is exacerbated during stressful situations or when people become anxious. Regular practice can make diaphragmatic breathing, a more energizing and restorative form of breathing, the default method. One way to get more practice is to take yoga classes, which almost always include a focus on breathing.
Most of us do not think about breathing much because we do it naturally. But learning better breathing techniques can improve your health in many ways.
Ong AML, Chua LTT, Khor CJL, Asokkumar R, Namasivayam V, Wang YT. "Diaphragmatic Breathing Reduces Belching and Proton Pump Inhibitor Refractory Gastroesophageal Reflux Symptoms." Clin Gastroentol Hepatol 2018 Mar;16(3):407-416.e2
How many times have you said, "If I knew then what I know now"? It could have been about your love life, a job, school, a large purchase like a car that ended up being a lemon because you didn't do enough research. I know I have said that about many decisions in my life.
A Snapshot of My Story
Not too many of you know my full story. My "why", if you will. My story is the reason why I am so passionate about a food forward approach to getting and staying healthy. It is why I spent years studying science-based information about health with Wellness Forum Health. It is why I love teaching others the skills for adopting and maintaining optimal habits. And I am still learning!
What is Autoimmune?
In the mid-80's, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Crohn's is one of the autoimmune diseases that takes a toll on the lives of millions of people in the United States every year. There are many autoimmune diseases: Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Celiac, Type 1 Diabetes, Graves disease, Hashimoto's, and many more. This is the short list (there are over 80). Autoimmune diseases are the third most common category of disease in the U.S. after cancer and cardiovascular disease and more than 78% of the people affected are women. Autoimmune diseases can affect every biological system in the body, including the endocrine system, connective tissue, gastrointestinal tract, heart, skin, and kidneys. Sounds like the plague, doesn't it?
Autoimmune means "immunity against self." Your white corpuscles-which were designed by God to fight off disease-are identifying some healthy part of your body as an enemy invader and attacking it to destroy it. It is the body attacking the body. In the medical community, the diagnosis of an autoimmune disease is a life sentence. When I was diagnosed, I was given a myriad of prescriptions with potentially dangerous side-effects and was told that food had nothing to do with it. Their best shot was to control the symptoms. There was no looking into any root causes or methods to bring healing. The last medication prescribed was the biologic Humira, which can potentially cause cancer.
The Search for Information
Back in "those days", there wasn't any internet to look for information. I took my meds, cried, and became even more stressed, sinking into depression and episodes of anxiety. Was this going to be my life? If only I knew then that stress and anxiety is a major trigger for any autoimmune disease, so my mental state certainly didn't help.
I will fast forward because the road was long and there isn't enough space to write about the battles, the pain, the weight fluctuations, the different medications, my hopeless mental state, the "pretending" that I was okay, the mental anguish of travel preparation (making sure I didn't eat because I will be on a plane for 4 hours). I was not in a good place physically, mentally, or spiritually.
By 2009, it was bad enough that the GI doctor said my colon was so damaged and inflamed that I needed a bowel resection, and a large section of my small bowel was removed. If I knew then what I know now, I would not have had that done. Why you ask? Because now I know the root causes of inflammation. When you read further, you will learn the consequences of that decision. Now I know how my horrible way of eating was triggering my Crohn's disease (and other autoimmune issues). If I knew when diagnosed in the 80's what I know now, I might have prevented the years of illness. But that is not how life works. We all face trials, traumas, undealt with emotions, and setbacks. We don't know what to do at the time, or we receive poor guidance which makes it easy to sink into the mode of self-pity and fear. These traumas, whether big or small, and our emotions, lead to actual physiological changes in the body.
A Snapshot of the Journey
My road to healing was not easy. It is its own story, and I am thankful to God for teaching me how to listen to my body and how His desire is for us to be whole: body, mind and spirit! My healing started in 2014 and is still ongoing. I share more of my testimony in my free lecture "What Does the Bible Say About Health." He led me to many resources in the nutritional science community and I started to cut out many of the foods that I learned cause inflammation and foods that trigger symptoms. I was starting to feel better, lighter, healthier, and focused. I have not taken medication for 9 years because I radically changed the way I eat, managed stress triggers, and increased daily exercise (which I was finally able to do because I had more energy!) It was a dramatic mindset shift, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
A Setback
Let me sum this up and get to the point of why I am sharing. Think about having surgery anywhere on your body. When cutting is involved that way, it needs to be stitched up or put back together. This results in scar tissue. The scar tissue from my bowel resection has thickened and as a result, caused an obstruction from the stricture. I started looking into that possibility a few years ago and hoped it would not happen. But last November, I could tell that things weren't "moving" the way they should. I went to the GI doctor, but he did not agree with my self-diagnosis. He scheduled a colonoscopy a few days before Christmas. I rescheduled it for their next available appointment, which is in February because, well, Christmas. Ugh, if I only knew then.
In the early morning hours of January 18, I went to the ER as I had been vomiting all night long. The obstruction was bad, and I was hospitalized for 5 days. I had an NG (nasogastric) tube down my nose for 2-1/2 days to drain my stomach. The results of the CT scan done in the emergency room showed the blockage was caused by the scar tissue. The surgeon visited me daily with his scalpel sharpened (kidding), waiting to see if I needed another surgery. I was on a regimen of steroids to control any inflammation and calm things down. Thankfully, I did not require surgery.
So now I wait until February 22 to assess the damage. I was down but have learned to give my adversities, and my scar tissue, to God. I know when to rest and give myself grace.
Choose Life
We can all learn what our bodies need: physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you are not aware of what your body needs, you cannot take care of it. In her groundbreaking book "Radical Remission", Kelly Turner writes about the lives of people who have defied a serious diagnosis of cancer by not only radically changing their diet, but by deepening their spiritual connections, dealing with their emotions and much more. This can be applied to any serious health issue as well. There is healing power available to all of us!
We are all scarred from our circumstances one way or another. Every one of our scars has a story, but they do not define us. God loves our scars, especially when they draw us closer to Him. He invites us into relationship with Him so that we can live in "Shalom", which means more than peace. It means to live in wholeness: body, mind, and spirit. We don't need to identify with our disease, as that is embracing death. We are created with a purpose and a plan. Part of that plan is to learn to be healthy so that we can be of service to others.
Thank you for reading to the end. Please email me with any questions on autoimmune issues. I wish you all Shalom!
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
www.lizfattore.com
DO YOU HAVE A STRATEGY?
The holidays are here and part of the fun of the season is the gatherings and spending more time with family and friends. Almost all of these occasions involve food, and it's a fair guess that they also include treats, sweetened beverages, and alcohol. While everyone has to make up his or her own mind about how to handle these occasions, I don't think it's a good idea to throw caution to the wind, eat anything and everything, and start over again in January for several reasons. One of them is that you were engaging in this type of behavior for a long time before deciding to change your diet and lifestyle to a healthier version, and it contributed to weight gain and health issues. One very important principle of the program I teach is that it is a plan for life. It is not a short-term heroic and restrictive diet that cannot be sustained. On the other hand, binging on junk food for short periods of time is not a good idea either.
Another reason to avoid a holiday eating orgy is that it will inevitably be accompanied by weight gain and feeling bad. It does not help to go backwards if you have been making progress toward your weight and/or health improvement goals.
The better strategy is to continue the "changing your life" program and learn to how to be a healthy eater who can enjoy the holidays. If you have been to any of my classes or events, remember the key strategies to implement any diet and lifestyle changes. It needs to be accessible, sustainable, and defensible with science.
If you are attending a party, eat a large salad, or a healthy soup with lots of veggies before you go. It's important to not attend these events when you are "starving". Fill up on salad and vegetables at family dinners and enjoy a few Christmas cookies!
Remain mindful of your strategy and intentions. This way you can have fun, indulge yourself a little, and wake up on January 1 feeling good about yourself, your weight, and your health.
Lastly, don't forget about exercise! Continuing your workouts is part of learning how to enjoy holiday seasons as a healthy person. Exercise can offset the effects of those cookies!
Stay tuned for 2024 as I resume classes and events, with hopefully more zoom meetings for the out-of-town folks.
I wish all of you a happy and healthy 2024!
Looking for a healthy side dish to bring to dinner? Check out this Cranberry Kale Pilaf. If you don't like Kale, sub spinach. Cranberry Kale Pilaf - Center for Nutrition Studies
