Blueberries are one of the foods with the highest antioxidant value.  To boost the anti-oxidant value even more, eat organic blueberries, rather than commercially grown berries.  If you want to enjoy blueberries

year round you may freeze them, as they maintain their anti-oxidant value after being frozen for 3 to 6 months.  You will likely prefer to use them only in baking after freezing them, though, because the fleshy inside pulp loses its firmness after being frozen.

Blueberries can be enjoyed by most people because they are also a low glycemic food, although blackberries, strawberries and raspberries are even lower on the glycemic scale.  Research has shown that eating 3 serving of low glycemic fruit per day improved blood sugar regulation.

Blueberries have been shown to improve neurologic function and to improve memory. Daily consumption of blueberries over the course of 3 months has been shown to increase eNOS, an enzyme that improves cardiovascular health, reducing blood pressure as well.

Because of their antioxidant value, they are protective to the eyes and protective against certain kinds of cancers as well.

Blueberries make a colorful, healthy snack for kids too.  But check their noses and ears…kids have been known to hide them.

IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome, is a very common condition and is one of the most common reasons that people see a gastroenterologist.  People who have IBS often have abdominal discomfort or pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation or alternating diarrhea and constipation after eating.  Some people only have one or two of these symptoms.

Many people who have IBS think that there is nothing they can do about it so they just modify their diet to avoid the foods that cause them adverse symptoms.  This enables them to manage their life better in the short-term, but often causes more problems in the long-term.  Gut inflammation from any cause, including IBS, if present for an extended period of time, will cause leaky gut.  The tight junctions between the cells that line the gut get looser, and allow partially-digested proteins to get through.  When these proteins enter the blood, the immune system identifies them as foreign, since they are not supposed to be in the bloodstream.  The immune system then mounts an immune response to them, and that person develops a food sensitivity.  People who ignore gut inflammation often get to a point where they don't know what to eat because they have developed reactions to many foods.  When this happens, they often develop nutritional deficiencies which can further diminish the health of their body.

The foods that often cause symptoms early in IBS are those that are high in FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols).  These are good prebiotic foods-those foods that nourish our gut flora.  After avoiding these foods for an extended period of time, our gut flora becomes less diverse and less healthy.  As I tell my patients, you want to 'keep the seats on the bus full' of beneficial bacteria so that any pathogenic, or disease-causing, bacteria that manage to get through the stomach (this often occurs when you have low stomach acid) don't 'have a seat', and they have to pass right through the colon and out with the stool.

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, is present in 80% of those who have IBS symptoms.  While it has not been definitively established that SIBO causes IBS, most patients are able to resolve most of their symptoms after SIBO treatment.  It often takes a few months longer to resolve the food sensitivities.  SIBO is diagnosed with a breath test that follows a 1 to 3-day prep diet.  For more information, see my SIBO testing, SIBO, healing leaky gut, and resolving food sensitivities pages.

Clinically, I have noticed that when I do a stool test and treat whatever I find on the stool test and in the several blood tests that I usually run on new patients, the patient's IBS symptoms resolve and I don't need to test for or treat SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth).

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Do you suffer from gas or bloating after eating that is usually worse towards the end of the day?  Do you have diarrhea or constipation?  Do you notice an oily film in the toilet after you eat a high-fat meal?  Are there many foods to which you have adverse reactions?  If so, you may have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Most people who have symptoms of IBS actually test positive for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).

SIBO is a condition that occurs when our normal gut bacteria which is usually found in greatest numbers in the colon (large intestine) is found in the small intestine.  It is normal to have some bacteria in our small intestine, but when they are found in high numbers, we often experience the symptoms listed above.

Under normal conditions in a healthy person, the migrating motor complex (MMC or 'intestine sweeper') causes intestinal contractions to occur about once every 90 minutes during the fasting state (between meals and during the night).  These contractions move any remaining undigested food particles and bacteria out of the small intestine, preventing them from eating the food we ingest to fuel our bodies.  When people graze all day, the MMC doesn't operate during the day,  but will still occur while you sleep.

Sometimes, after a person experiences a bout of food poisoning, they get the diarrhea, then notice in the months following that they have more gas and bloating than they did previously.  Certain bacteria secrete a toxin that can damage the nerves in the gut.  It is believed that this is one way that the movement of the MMC is hindered, and that when it doesn't clean the intestines as it is supposed to, SIBO can develop.  Eating a lot of sugary foods and refined carbohydrates provides a lot of food for these bacteria, which also encourages an overpopulation of the small intestine.

As I mentioned before, it is normal to have some bacteria in the small intestine.  So what causes them to become too plentiful in the person who has never had food poisoning?  One problem is our society today is that we feed these bacteria too well.  If we have low levels of stomach acid (from high levels of stress, from taking acid blocking drugs or from damaged parietal cells in the stomach, etc) not only do we allow more pathogenic bacteria to survive in the stomach and make their way to the intestines, but we also don't have a strong signal to tell the pancreas to release the enzymes that we need to digest our food.  When digestion is hindered, food sits in the small intestine for longer periods of time, giving the bacteria there more time to eat and more energy to reproduce, so you end up with more bacteria in the small intestine.  The bacteria ferment the carbohydrates, causing gas.  Gas can cause abdominal pain and cramping. It can be irritating to the small intestine to have partially-digested food and lots of bacteria there, and this can cause inflammation.  Inflammation is characterized by heat, redness, swelling, pain or loss of function.  We all have seen it when we've gotten an insect bite or a bad bruise. So what does inflammation do when it occurs inside the intestines?

Inflammation in the gut can cause abdominal pain.  It can also cause a condition called leaky gut that is often responsible for multiple food sensitivities.  When there is swelling in the intestines, the 'tight junctions' between the cells become loose, allowing larger proteins to pass through into the blood vessels surrounding the intestines.  The immune system recognizes these food proteins as foreign because they don't belong in the blood, so it makes antibodies to fight these 'invaders'.  This, in turn, causes more inflammation.  The more food sensitivities one has, the more difficult it is to avoid them all, and we have a vicious cycle.  But......the good news....we know how to test for SIBO and how to treat it.  We naturopathic doctors also have several effective strategies for supporting digestive function by helping the body make adequate amounts of stomach acid.  I will leave this for another blog post.

The lactulose breath test is an easy, non-invasive test for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).  The hardest part about the test is the 3-day prep diet to clear away the food for the small intestinal bacteria, so that we can get an accurate test.  In a nutshell, you cut out almost all carbohydrates for 1-3 days (I recommend a 3-day prep diet) prior to taking the test.  This makes the bacteria very hungry and causes you to crave carbs and to be irritable.

On the day of the test, you will blow once into a balloon-like device, then will drink a solution of lactulose.  Our bodies don't absorb lactulose, so it stays in the small intestine so the bacteria can eat it.  Certain bacteria produce certain gasses, like hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide.   You will blow into the balloon-like device every 20 minutes for 3 hours, then send all the tubes to the lab to have the gas in the tubes analyzed.  By identifying the type of gas and the amount of each gas in each tube, we can determine which type of bacteria are present and can estimate how long it may take to eradicate them.  I use anti-microbial herbs for treating the condition.  After treatment, I often recommend a prokinetic, a substance that stimulates the movement of the MMC, be taken for about 3 months to prevent recurrence of SIBO.  I also recommend a low FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) diet to keep inflammation down and heal up the gut. For more information on SIBO, refer to the website of my brilliant mentor, Dr. Allison Siebecker at www.siboinfo.com.

Inflammation in the gut can be caused by eating gluten when you have gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, eating foods to which you are allergic, ingesting dairy when you are lactose intolerant, as well as from a parasitic, bacterial or viral infection in the gut. I will save these topics for another post.

January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month.

Glaucoma is one of the most common causes of vision loss and blindness in the US.  It causes damage to the optic nerve.  This damage may or may not be accompanied by increased ocular pressure.  Most of us adults have experience the air puff test which tests our intra-ocular pressure.  A more sensitive test for glaucoma is the measurement of corneal thickness, called pachymetry.

Most often, early in the disease process, there are no symptoms.  Later, peripheral vision (vision to the side) is affected which can progress to tunnel vision and eventually to loss of forward vision as well.  Less commonly, the onset may be sudden.  This is often the case when one develops acute or narrow angle glaucoma.  Symptoms of this type of glaucoma may include sudden visual disturbances, red eyes, halos around objects, severe eye pain, dilated pupils and sometimes nausea or vomiting.  This type of glaucoma is a medical emergency.The Fort Collins Food Coop, Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, Manna Food Coop in Detroit Lakes, MN and most health food stores carry several products that may be used to protect your eye health. Astaxanthin is a potent carotenoid that scavenges free radicals in the eye, protecting these tissues from oxidative damage.  Lutein, found in leafy green vegetables and available as a supplement, is another carotenoid that also acts as an antioxidant, as do vitamins C and E, bilberries and other bright colored fruits and vegetables.  High quality omega-3 fats contain DHA which is found in high quantities in the retina, and has been found useful in preventing macular degeneration.

Lifestyle strategies that protect eye health include exercising regularly, getting regular eye exams, keeping your insulin levels within normal range, avoiding sugars, minimizing grain consumption, and avoiding trans fats.

What we call vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone that is essential for numerous processes in the body.  It is important for utilizing calcium to build and maintain strong bones and teeth, for fighting infection, enhancing the self-destruction of mutated cells, slowing the production and spread of cancer cells, and improving seizure control in epileptics.  Having adequate vitamin D levels reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, preterm births, the risk of respiratory and vaginal infections and gingivitis. There are vitamin D receptors on most, if not all cells so it is likely that vitamin D is necessary for more processes than we are aware of.

For reasons that we don't completely understand, most people who don’t supplement with vitamin D are deficient in it, even those who live in sunny places like Florida and Arizona.  The rule of thumb to obtain Vitamin D from the sun is to expose your face and arms to the sun for 20 minutes per day, during a time when you are taller than your shadow.  It is important to have your serum vitamin D level checked at least once per year. It appears that the optimal serum vitamin D level is between 50 and 60 ng/ml.  A vitamin D level above 60ng/ml may increase the risk of certain cancers.

If you supplement, consider using emulsified Vitamin D3, as this is a form that is readily bioavailable. The Fort Collins Food Coop carries several forms of Vitamin D, including an emulsified vitamin D.  If you need to take more than 2000 IU per day, consider taking it in divided doses, since taking greater than 2000 IU at one time has been known to cause acid reflux in some people.

Establishing a routine for incorporating movement in one’s life is an important part of healing and strengthening the body, but how much is too much?

Each day, 441 Americans die of a heart attack, with their first symptom being death.  Even more people die from a second or subsequent event.   This month I will discuss strategies for

measuring your cardiovascular risk level and will share strategies for decreasing your risk.

As we increase our time spent in aerobic exercise to 5 hours per week, we decrease our risk of having a cardiac event (heart attack or stroke).  But exercising vigorously for more than 5 hours, actually increases our cardiovascular risk.  Those who exercise vigorously for 20 or more hours per week have cardiovascular risk equivalent to that of a sedentary ‘couch potato’-type person.  Interestingly, those who walk for just 20 minutes per day had 50% fewer heart attacks than those who didn’t walk.

Other strategies to minimize your risk include eating 5 to 8 servings of vegetables and plenty of healthy fats (the food coop carries a wide variety), sleeping at least 8 hours per night, maintaining healthy blood glucose levels and keeping your Vitamin D level between 50 & 60 ng/ml.

The test that is the most predictive of cardiovascular risk and all-cause mortality is the coronary calcium score. This test involves CT imaging of the heart without contrast dye to detect the level of calcification.  It is recommended that men have their first

coronary calcium test at age 40 and women at age 50, or earlier if you have a family history of cardiovascular disease.

Insomnia may be caused by many different factors.  Inflammation is often a common factor in the many factors that contribute to sleep disorders.

Here at Practical Health Solutions, LLC, I first take a detailed history to determine the likely cause of your sleep concern(s).  I could be due to worn out adrenal glands, blood sugar dysregulation, hormonal imbalances, eating foods to which you are either allergic or sensitive, or to a toxic exposure, to name a few.  After scheduling a patient for their first appointment, I send them a comprehensive intake questionnaire.  The answers to the questions on this questionnaire give me a good idea of what may be causing or contributing to your sleep problem before I even meet with you.  By filling out the intake paperwork completely and thoroughly, you enable me to be very efficient during out first visit.  This information has enabled me to diagnose patients who have gone undiagnosed for years.

If you don't have recent lab test results, I may need to draw blood to determine what may be causing your insomnia or other sleep problem.  These tests may include blood glucose, hormone levels, and/or food sensitivity and allergy testing.

I often prescribe a diet that is individualized to you and that will keep the inflammation in your body at a healthy level.  This is the key to keeping you healthy, even after we resolve the insomnia.

I will discuss sleep hygiene with you - simple lifestyle modifications that provide your body with the most restful environment and support deep, restorative sleep.  I will give you a basic understanding of the physiology of sleep so that you have to tools to prevent sleep problems in the future.  We will discuss the best time to sleep and strategies to make your bedroom more conductive to deep, restorative sleep.

If I suspect that sleep apnea may be a problem for you, I will refer you to a local sleep clinic to be tested. 

Do you suffer from gas or bloating after eating that is usually worse towards the end of the day?  Do you have diarrhea or constipation?  Do you notice an oily film in the toilet after you eat a high-fat meal?  Are there many foods to which you have adverse reactions?  If so, you may have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Most people who have symptoms of IBS actually test positive for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).

SIBO is a condition that occurs when our normal gut bacteria which is usually found in greatest numbers in the colon (large intestine) is found in the small intestine.  It is normal to have some bacteria in our small intestine, but when they are found in high numbers, we often experience the symptoms listed above.

Under normal conditions in a healthy person, the migrating motor complex (MMC or 'intestine sweeper') causes intestinal contractions to occur about once every 90 minutes during the fasting state (between meals and during the night).  These contractions move any remaining undigested food particles and bacteria out of the small intestine, preventing them from eating the food we ingest to fuel our bodies.  When people graze all day, the MMC doesn't operate during the day,  but will still occur while you sleep.

Sometimes, after a person experiences a bout of food poisoning, they get the diarrhea, then notice in the months following that they have more gas and bloating than they did previously.  Certain bacteria secrete a toxin that can damage the nerves in the gut.  It is believed that this is one way that the movement of the MMC is hindered, and that when it doesn't clean the intestines as it is supposed to, SIBO can develop.  Eating a lot of sugary foods and refined carbohydrates provides a lot of food for these bacteria, which also encourages an overpopulation of the small intestine.

As I mentioned before, it is normal to have some bacteria in the small intestine.  So what causes them to become too plentiful in the person who has never had food poisoning?  One problem is our society today is that we feed these bacteria too well.  If we have low levels of stomach acid (from high levels of stress, from taking acid blocking drugs or from damaged parietal cells in the stomach, etc.) not only do we allow more pathogenic bacteria to survive in the stomach and make their way to the intestines, but we also don't have a strong signal to tell the pancreas to release the enzymes that we need to digest our food.  When digestion is hindered, food sits in the small intestine for longer periods of time, giving the bacteria there more time to eat and more energy to reproduce, so you end up with more bacteria in the small intestine.  The bacteria ferment the carbohydrates, causing gas.  Gas can cause abdominal pain and cramping. It can be irritating to the small intestine to have partially-digested food and lots of bacteria there, and this can cause inflammation.  Inflammation is characterized by heat, redness, swelling, pain or loss of function.  We all have seen it when we've gotten an insect bite or a bad bruise. So what does inflammation do when it occurs inside the intestines?

Inflammation in the gut can cause abdominal pain.  It can also cause a condition called leaky gut that is often responsible for multiple food sensitivities.  When there is swelling in the intestines, the 'tight junctions' between the cells become loose, allowing larger proteins to pass through into the blood vessels surrounding the intestines.  The immune system recognizes these food proteins as foreign because they don't belong in the blood, so it makes antibodies to fight these 'invaders'.  This, in turn, causes more inflammation.  The more food sensitivities one has, the more difficult it is to avoid them all, and we have a vicious cycle.  But......the good news....we know how to test for SIBO and how to treat it.  We naturopathic doctors also have several effective strategies for supporting digestive function by helping the body make adequate amounts of stomach acid.  I will leave this for another blog post.

The lactulose breath test is an easy, non-invasive test for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).  The hardest part about the test is the 3-day prep diet to clear away the food for the small intestinal bacteria, so that we can get an accurate test.  In a nutshell, you cut out almost all carbohydrates for 1-3 days (I recommend a 3-day prep diet) prior to taking the test.  This makes the bacteria very hungry and causes you to crave carbs and to be irritable.

On the day of the test, you will blow once into a balloon-like device, then will drink a solution of lactulose.  Our bodies don't absorb lactulose, so it stays in the small intestine so the bacteria can eat it.  Certain bacteria produce certain gasses, like hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide.   You will blow into the balloon-like device every 20 minutes for 3 hours, then send all the tubes to the lab to have the gas in the tubes analyzed.  By identifying the type of gas and the amount of each gas in each tube, we can determine which type of bacteria are present and can estimate how long it may take to eradicate them.  I use anti-microbial herbs for treating the condition.  After treatment, I often recommend a prokinetic, a substance that stimulates the movement of the MMC, be taken for about 3 months to prevent recurrence of SIBO.  I also recommend a low FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) diet to keep inflammation down and heal up the gut. For more information on SIBO, refer to the website of my brilliant mentor, Dr. Allison Siebecker at www.siboinfo.com. 

Inflammation in the gut can be caused by eating gluten when you have gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, eating foods to which you are allergic, ingesting dairy when you are lactose intolerant, as well as from a parasitic, bacterial or viral infection in the gut. I will save these topics for another post.

Food sensitivities often occur as a result of leaky gut, the hyper-permeability of the small intestine.  Leaky gut often occurs after there has been long-term inflammation in the gut.  With diligent attention paid to their diet for several months, food sensitivities can be resolved.

The first step in the resolution of food sensitivities is to identify the source of inflammation in the gut.   This could be small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, Crohn's disease, and several other conditions.  I test for whichever condition I think is the most likely, based on the patient's symptoms, or for more than one if I think there may be more than one source of inflammation.  I then treat that condition.  After the inflammation has resolved, I either test the patient for food allergies and sensitivities.  I usually test them for gluten sensitivity at the same time. Since foods can cause a reaction as long as 3 days after ingestion, it is possible that the patient doesn't know all of the foods to which they are sensitive.  For this reason, I prefer to test for food allergies and sensitivities.

Another less costly option for food sensitivity testing is to do an elimination diet.  To do this, the patient avoids all the most common food sensitivities and allergens for 3 to 6 weeks and then add them back in one at a time, every 4 days, keeping track of which foods cause them an adverse reaction.  The person continues to avoid the foods to which they react. If the patient has been able to control their symptoms with diet alone, they probably know most of the offending foods, and so may choose not to test for them.

With this information, I come up with an individualized gut-healing diet for them to follow for several months.  While we are healing the gut, the patient is avoiding all their trigger foods, allowing time for the IgG antibodies that cause food sensitivities to die off.  If they don't ingest these foods, the immune system won't make any more antibodies to that food.  By the time the several months is over, the leaky gut will be healed, and these foods will no longer pass through as they had before and will no longer stimulate the immune system to make antibodies to them.  If there is a food that the patient still reacts to, it might be a true allergy.  They can test to find out if they have an IgE reaction (true allergy) to that food.  If it is a true allergy, they will need to avoid that food, even after the gut-healing process is over.  Continuing to ingest that food could cause leaky gut to recur and we would have to start the whole process again.

After several months on the gut healing diet, avoiding all their offending foods, the patient may either retest for food sensitivities or begin adding foods back into their diet, one at a time, 4 days apart, keeping track of any adverse symptoms they might experience.  If they have been avoiding all sources of a given offending food, they shouldn't react to it.  If they do, either they ingested a hidden source of that food without knowing it or they have an allergy, rather than a sensitivity to that food.  This is one reason that I prefer to do allergy testing to an elimination diet.  The allergy test results will state which foods produced an IgE (true allergy) reaction and which produced and IgG (food sensitivity) reaction.

You can tell from reading about this process, that it would take great diligence to complete this process.  If you are willing to participate in this process, you can open up your diet to a much wider variety of foods over time. 

Balancing hormones naturally involves both the avoidance of substances that alter the level of naturally-occurring hormones and providing adequate amounts of the nutrients needed to make hormones.

Xenoestrogens are a class a chemicals called endocrine disrupters.  They bind to estrogen receptors in the body, displacing estrogen.  When they bind they may cause an increase or decrease in the effect on that given organ or no response at all.  For this reason, their effect on our hormone levels is quite unpredictable.  Some common sources of xenoestrogen exposure include insecticides, BPA in plastic containers, parabens found in personal care products, and flame retardants sprayed on furniture and found in clothing.  I give my patients the tools to avoid these substances.

Besides avoiding endocrine disrupters, we need to ensure that the body has adequate amounts of all the 'building blocks' to make hormones.  Ensuring that the patient is ingesting adequate amounts of healthy oils, that they are not taking in trans-fats, and that they are not deficient in any nutrient is a common strategy for optimizing hormone levels in the body.  I also optimize liver function since many hormones are processed in the liver.

Sleep is essential for producing adequate amounts of hormones as well as for removing toxins from the body that may interfere with hormone production.  I assess the quantity and quality of sleep in each of my patients.  I make recommendations to increase the hours of deep, restorative sleep, since it is crucial to obtaining and maintaining optimal health.

Picky eaters may learn that certain foods hurt their tummy and so, unconsciously, avoid those foods.  Here at Practical Health Solutions, LLC, we do a blood test to identify antibodies to certain foods. For those who have the time, the elimination diet may be used instead to identify food sensitivities. I prefer to do blood testing since some food reactions occur 2 to 4 days after the person ingests the food, making it difficult to identify what you are reacting to. 

For most people, we do a venipuncture because this type of testing allows us to test for a wider array of foods and environmental sensitivities.  I have learned that, when testing children for food sensitivities, a venipuncture is often less traumatic than a heel stick.  It is the parent's choice of which method we use.

IgG food sensitivities occur as a result of developing leaky gut.  Leaky gut is the result of inflammation in the gut which occurs from one or more of several causes.  At Practical Health Solutions, LLC, we identify the cause of the inflammation, treat the cause and then follow up with a gut-healing protocol.  Just avoiding the foods to which you are sensitive isn't enough  to resolve leaky gut, unless you have a true allergy to a food that set off the inflammation in the first place.   To heal the gut and resolve food sensitivities, we need identify and remove the source of inflammation.  Then, after the source of inflammation has been resolved, the offending foods need to be avoiding for a period of time to give the antibodies to those foods time to die off.  After this time, foods are introduced one at a time, 4 days apart, with the patient paying close attention to whether or not they have a reaction to the food.  If they still have an adverse reaction to a food, they will need to continue to avoid it for a period of time. Alternatively, the person may choose to have their blood tested again to see if they still have antibodies to any of the foods.

Acid reflux is a common complaint in modern society.  It should not be ignored since it can cause Barrett’s esophagus, a precancerous change to the tissue in the esophagus.

The causes of acid reflux are varied – from a hiatal hernia to food sensitivities to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or gut dysbiosis (imbalanced gut flora).  When you come to Practical Health Solutions for an appointment for treating acid reflux, I first determine the cause.  This usually involves some testing.  If you have already done some testing, it is helpful to have those records at our first appointment. Once we know what is causing the problem, we will use naturopathic methods to correct it.  We remove the obstacles to cure so that your body can heal itself.

Most patients experience relief by a couple weeks after beginning the treatment phase.  If the acid reflux is caused by a hiatal hernia, relief may be achieved on the day of the hiatal hernia correction.

Allergies occur when the immune system comes in contact with substances to which it is has been previously activated.  Contact with allergens causes the immune system to produce IgE antibodies.  When one produces IgE antibodies to a given substance we say that they have a true allergy.  This is in contrast to a  food sensitivity, which is an IgG response.  True allergies are considered permanent.  To help you remember which is which, I say IgE means 'forEver and Ever' (not 100% accurate because you may undergo allergy desensitization, but it makes it easier to make the distinction).  IgG means 'Go away'.  Doctors, such as I, who are trained in healing leaky gut, are able to resolve food sensitivities. While I say that allergies (IgE) are considered permanent, there are several methods that we use to minimize the response of the immune system to any given substance.

We also identify and treat other sources of inflammation in the body in an effort to decrease overall inflammation.  Once this is achieved, patients notice that their allergy symptoms are less prominent. For those with asthma as well, we work on two

levels-reducing the immune response to allergens (if the person has allergy-induced asthma) and optimizing lung function.

Leaky gut, known in the research as intestinal hyper-permeability, is a condition in which the small intestine is more permeable to large proteins than is usual. It occurs when there has been gut inflammation for an extended period of time.  The tight junctions between the cells in the intestines become loose, allowing larger proteins to pass into the bloodstream.  The immune system, then, identifies these proteins as foreign and mounts an immune response to them.  Antibodies are made and each time the person eats that food, the immune system reacts to it.  This is a common cause of multiple food sensitivities.  Leaky gut can also cause other symptoms such as brain fog, excessive fatigue and arthritis or joint pain.  There is a correlation between leaky gut and autoimmune conditions, although the exact mechanism by which auto-immunity develops is unclear.

Food sensitivities may cause symptoms within hours of ingestion of that food and up to three days later.  For this reason, the patient is often not aware of all the foods to which they react.  Food sensitivity and allergy testing is an important part of the leaky gut repair process because it enables us to identify all the foods which are inflammatory to any given patient.

First, I identify the source of inflammation that caused the leaky gut in the first place.  This could be a gluten sensitivity in a person who still consumes gluten, one who eats foods to which they are allergic or sensitive, Crohn's disease, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or any other inflammatory condition of the small intestine. Once we identify the source of inflammation, I treat the cause, and then we begin the gut-healing phase.

I test for food allergies, food sensitivities and gluten sensitivities.  With this information, I come up with an individualized gut-healing diet that requires also the avoidance of all foods to which the patient is allergic or sensitive.  The patient will need to stay on this diet for several months to cut down the inflammation in the gut and to provide the body with the nutrients it needs to heal.  If necessary, I will prescribe a probiotic to restore balance to the patient's flora which, in itself, will contribute to healing the gut.  I may also prescribe gut-healing herbs and/or nutrients if that patient has symptoms consistent with malabsorption.

After I determine that the gut is healed, we will either retest for food sensitivities or the patient will add back foods, one at a time, four days apart, keeping track of any adverse reactions they may experience.  The patient will wait a few days after each adverse reaction, before they will attempt to add in another food.  They will continue to avoid all the foods to which they had an adverse reaction.  They will continue this process until they have added in all the foods that they typically eat.  They may continue to avoid the offending foods for a few more months, then try adding them back in again or they may do food allergy and food sensitivity testing again.  If they continue to react to a certain food, they may have a true allergy (IgE reaction) to that food, rather than a food sensitivity due to leaky gut.  In the case of an allergy, the food must be removed from their diet.

Healing leaky gut is not as difficult as resolving food sensitivities, but they can both be accomplished with a lot of diligence and tenacity.

Hiatal hernia syndrome is a group of symptoms found when a patient has either a hiatal hernia or when the stomach is pushing up against the diaphragm, causing symptoms similar to those of a hiatal hernia.  A hiatal hernia occurs when part of the stomach protrudes up through the diaphragm.  Symptoms associated with hiatal hernia syndrome may include acid reflux, anxiety, hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid level), low level of pancreatic enzyme secretion and sometimes difficulty swallowing.

Hiatal hernias occur when there is increased intra-abdominal pressure, such as during pregnancy, when wearing clothing that is tight at the waist, from holding breath while lifting weights or heavy items and from vomiting violently.  A sliding hiatal hernia is one that comes and goes spontaneously.

I ask my patients who have had a recent EGD (upper endoscopy) performed for a copy of the endoscopy report.  Quite often the report will state that there was a hiatal hernia apparent at the time of the endoscopy, but corrective treatment is not usually offered.

I perform an adjustment for hiatal hernia syndrome in my office.  I place gentle tension on tissues nearby and hold that gentle tension while the body itself does the correction.  The patient may feel movement of the tissues in the area of the stomach, may sense a 'bubbling sensation' in their upper abdomen or may feel nothing other than my gentle tension during the procedure.  If the hiatal hernia noted on the endoscopy report is significant (40 to 80%), I will refer the patient to a gastroenterologist for surgical correction.

Many patients notice that they feel like their chest is 'more open', and that they feel like they can breathe more easily after the correction.  Some report that swallowing pills and solid food is easier and an improvement in their acid reflux.

I have found that many of my patients with allergies do much better if they can sleep in a room with purified air.  Some run the air purifier only while they are gone because they don't like the hum.  Others will keep it running on low all the time.

There is research that supports the use of air purifiers to prevent asthma.  Read more about a study of pediatric patients and the benefit they obtained by breathing purified air.

Air purifiers come in various capacities.  Some are able to purify the air of a 1700 sq foot home and others purify just a large room.  If money is tight, I recommend buying one for just the bedroom and keeping pets out of the room, if you are allergic to pets.

I use Austin Air purifiers in both my home and my office.  It is a brand that I trust.  If you choose to purchase an Austin Air purifier, I am a dealer and can order the size and color that you choose.   For more information, see the Austin Air website.

If you qualify, I will provide you with a letter of medical necessity so that you can use your Flexible Spending Account to purchase it.