Pain and Inflammation From Food Allergies: How to Live an “Itis” and “Algia” Free Life

Dr. Ritamarie’s Food Allergy Spy Training: FAST Relief From Leaky Gut, Fibromyalgia, and More

If you have any of these problems, you should find out if underlying food allergies are the cause:

If you have persistent weight issues that won’t go away
If there are dark circles under eyes
If you ever experience upset stomach and poor digestion
If you’re embarrassed by skin eruptions
If you suffer from fibromyalgia (long-term, body-wide pain and tenderness in the joints, muscles, tendons, and soft tissues)
If you have autoimmune disease (an overactive immune response where the body mistakenly attacks its own cells)
If you’re struggling with hormone imbalance
If you have concerns about your thyroid health
If you’re experiencing fatigue and adrenal burnout
If you struggle with depression
If you need to correct blood sugar imbalances
If you suffer from headaches

These unwanted health symptoms may actually be a “good” thing if they are the early warning signs that your body is trying to get you to hear. The sooner you listen to what your body is telling you, the sooner you can heal the inflammation that’s causing the problems and avoid more serious health risks.

For a limited time, Dr. Ritamarie’s Food Allergy Spy Training program (FAST) is being offered for $100 off the regular price.  You’ll receive 30 days of step-by-step guidance to help you detect your hidden food allergies through a proven Food Elimination-Provocation Process (FEPP) and get a handle on your symptoms.  After, you can participate for two months in the new VITAL Community (Vibrant Ideas and Tools for Awesome Living).

The first live group run of the FAST program begins on January 17th, 2012.

Click HERE to learn more:

http://www.FoodAllergySpy.com

The Dangers of Undiagnosed Food Allergies: Breaking Down Instead of Breaking Out

Food is intended to replenish your cells, nourish your organs, and give you the energy you need to do all the things in your life that bring you joy. Yet sometimes this process backfires and meal times leave you bloated, exhausted, and unmotivated.

So what goes wrong?

One of the often overlooked causes of feeling “bad” after eating is food allergies and food intolerances.

When your immune system mistakes good food for a foreign invader, it sets up a cascade of inflammatory reactions to “kill it”, leading to pain, inflammation, and dysfunction in your body.

Most people don’t even realize anything’s wrong… at first.

Even If You’re Not Breaking Out, You May Still Be Breaking Down

Conventional medicine discounts the importance of food allergies in solving chronic health challenges and persistent body fat issues, save for those outwardly manifesting allergies that cause an immediate skin reaction or inability to breathe.

For those types of food allergies, the solution is clear from a medical perspective: avoid the food and if you accidentally get exposed, take an anti-histamine medication or a shot of epinephrine.

But what about the other kinds of food allergies – the insidious ones that contribute to chronic symptoms and health challenges? The problem with detecting these types of food intolerances is that the reaction is often not immediate, so it takes a lot of detective work to determine what foods are causing the problem.

Food allergies are tested for and managed by many alternative practitioners, yet there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about what they are, what causes food allergies, and whether these allergies can be overcome.

So, What’s Your Poison?

It’s possible that many “healthy” foods are not so good for you. It is said that “one man’s food is another man’s poison,” and this is so true when it comes to food allergy reactions. Even highly nutritious foods like broccoli or blueberries can induce an immune response that leaves you ill.

Your immune system is a double edged sword. The same reactions that can protect you from dangerous microbes can inflame and damage your essential body tissues and lead to chronic health issues.

What Happens When You Ignore Food Allergies and Intolerances?

Chronic over activity of your immune system can lead to problems like:

• weight gain
  
• depression
• joint pain
• fatigue
• headaches
• indigestion
• asthma
• eczema
• fibromyalgia
• autoimmune conditions
• autism
• attention deficit disorder
• and many more

So what causes your immune system to get confused and attack good food?

We’ll cover a few here and invite you to learn the details at a brand new, hot off the press, FREE teleseminar on January 3rd, 2012 called Turning Food Allergies Inside Out: Revealing the Causes, Culprits, and Cures. You’ll find the details below.

The Causes of Food Allergies

There are many causes of food allergies and intolerances, but here is a list of the most common (References are published below for further reading).

1. Infancy Food Exposure: Exposure to foods other than breast milk during the first few months of life can contribute to food allergies. Your digestive tract was designed to be able to allow larger molecules through during early life so that your mom could nurse you, pass on the protective antibodies from her immune system, and protect you. Unfortunately, what also passes through her milk are her food antibodies too.
   In addition, if you are fed anything other than breast milk in those early months, those openings in your digestive tract work against you and allow proteins from cow’s milk or soy, the most common foods in infant formula, to pass into your blood stream and create an immune reaction. (1) (2)
2. Immunizations: If you were immunized, the goal was to create a protective immune response to the injected substances. Unfortunately, carrier substances injected with the immunizations include things like egg albumin, which can cause you to become allergic to eggs.(3)
3. Antibiotics: Within the first year of life, intake of antibiotics has been associated with increased risk of food allergy. (4)
4. Antacids: The use of antacids impair stomach acid production and leads to the poor digestion of proteins. These undigested proteins irritate the delicate lining of your intestine, eventually eroding it enough so that the larger molecules enter your blood stream and mount an immune system attack. (5) (6)
5. Gluten: Gluten-containing foods inflame and damage your intestinal mucous membrane and result in Leaky Gut Syndrome. As a result large, undigested protein molecules enter your blood stream and your immune system attacks them. (7)
6. Stress: Eating when stressed causes increased cortisol production, which shuts down your digestion and can lead to Leaky Gut Syndrome. (9)
7. Sugar: Eating sugar disrupts normal intestinal flora and disrupts digestion. (10)

How to Tell if You Have a Potential Food Allergies or Intolerance

How do you know if food allergies may be contributing to your health concerns? Take this short self assessment quiz and find out for yourself:

1. Do you feel tired after eating?
2. Do you frequently clear your throat after meals?
3. Do you feel like you need looser pants at the end of the day?
4. Do you crave certain foods (like bread, cheese, and other snack foods) and feel the urge to eat more even if you feel full?
5. Do you feel like your pulse and heart beat become rapid after eating certain foods?
6. Do you have inflammation and pain for which you haven’t found a cause?
7. Have you been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease?
8. Do you experience belching, bloating, gas, or pain after eating?
9. Do you have persistent extra weight in spite of a low calorie diet and exercise?
10. Do you have asthma?
11. Do you have difficulty focusing that comes and goes?
12. Have you lost your motivation for things you used to enjoy?
13. Do you need to urinate frequently?
14. Do you have an irritable bowel?
15. Do you have unexplained bouts of depression, anxiety, or irritability?
16. Do you have frequent skin rashes, eczema, or psoriasis?

If you answered yes even to ONE of these, you might have an undiagnosed food allergy. If you answered yes to 3 or more you most certainly do.

For the full scoop on food allergies and how they are affecting your health, your energy, and your life, join me on January 3rd, 2012 for a free teleseminar:

Turning Food Allergies Inside Out: Revealing the Causes, Culprits, and Cures
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012, 7:30 p.m. Central

This food allergy teleseminar will cover:

• What’s happening in your body that causes your immune system to start attacking your food
• The step-by-step sequence of events that occurs during a food allergy reaction
• The most common food triggers
• The role of your digestive tract in causing and clearing food allergies
• Elimination diets and how they work
• Lab testing for food allergies
• Retesting culprit foods
• Enjoying your food, loving your life

I’ll go into even more detail about the effects of food allergies, so be sure to join us:

Register HERE!

If you’re tired of being tired, unfocused, and uncomfortable, or if you are sick of the weight that just won’t budge despite your best efforts, you owe it to yourself to explore whether food allergies are contributing to your ill health.

Learn how to become energetic, happy, and productive once more.

Food Allergy References

(1) Analysis of Intestinal Flora Development in Breast-Fed and Formula-Fed Infants by Using Molecular Identification and Detection Methods. Harmsen, Hermie J. M.; Wildeboer-Veloo, Alida C. M.; Raangs, Gerwin C.; Wagendorp, Arjen A.; Klijn, Nicolette; Bindels, Jacques G.; Welling, Gjalt W. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition: January 2000 – Volume 30 – Issue 1 – pp 61-67.

(2) Influence Of Maternal Good Antigen Avoidance During Pregnancy and Lactation on Incidence of Atopic Eczema in Infants. R. K. Chandra; S. Puri; C. Suraiya; P. S. Cheema. Clinical & Experimental Allergy: Volume 16, Issue 6, pp 563-569, November 1986.

(3) Is Infant Immunization a Risk Factor for Childhood Asthma or Allergy? Trudi Kemp; Neil Pearce; Penny Fitzharris; Julian Crane; David Fergusson; Ian St. George; Kristin Wickens; and Richard Beasley. Epidemiology Vol. 8, No. 6 (Nov., 1997), pp. 678-680 (article consists of 3 pages) Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3702662

(4) Antibiotic Administration Early in Life Impairs Specific Humoral Responses to an Oral Antigen and Increases Intestinal Mast Cell Numbers and Mediator Concentrations. S. Nutten; A. Schumann; D. Donnicola; A. Mercenier; S. Rami; and C. L. Garcia-Rodenas. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2007 February; 14(2): 190-197. Published online 2006. December 6. doi: 10.1128/CVI.00055-06.

(5) Anti-Acids Lead to Immunological and Morphological Changes in the Intestine Of BALB/C Mice Similar to Human Food Allergy. Isabella Pali-Schöll; Ali Ö. Yildirim; Ute Ackermann; Tanja Knauer; Christoph Becker; Holger Garn; Harald Renz; Erika Jensen-Jarolim; Heinz Fehrenbach. Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology: Volume 60, Issues 4-5, 5 August 2008, pp. 337-345.

(6) Food Allergy: Recent Advances in Pathophysiology and Treatment. Annual Review of Medicine Vol. 60: 261-277 (Volume publication date February 2009). Scott H. Sicherer and Hugh A. Sampson. The Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029-6574.

(7) Intestinal Permeability in Patients with Eczema and Food Allergy. P.G Jackson; R.W.R Baker; M.H Lessof; Jean Ferrett; D.M Macdonald. The Lancet Volume 317, Issue 8233, 13 June 1981, pp. 1285-1286.

(8) Stress and Intestinal Disease. By Adam Moeser. http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/ccmtr/documents/Moeser.pdf

(9) Your Hidden Food Allergies are Making You Fat. Rudy Riera, MD and Roger Davis Deutsch.

(10) The Pulse Test. Arthur F. Coca.

(11) Dr, Mandellss 5 Day Allergy Relief System.

(12) Food Allergy Survival Guide. Vesanto Melinda MS, RD.

Vitamin D: Are you getting enough?

Nature’s design is to offer us the ability to easily get enough Vitamin D.  We were born with the ability to convert sunlight to vitamin d.  Cool, huh?

The only problem is we’re deficient in sunlight.

Most of us work indoors.  And we’re taught by the “authorities” to be scared of  the sun because it’s dangerous and can cause skin cancer.  It’s said we must slather ourselves in sunscreen or wear protective clothing whenever we go outdoors.

We’ve created a Vitamin D deficient society by virtue of our lifestyles.

By protecting yourself from the sun, you prevent the more benign form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma.  You do nothing to prevent the deadly form, malignant melanoma.

And by allowing yourself to become Vitamin D deficient, you put yourself at risk for more serious forms of cancer than you prevent by avoiding sunlight.  Incidences of colon, prostate and breast cancer are significantly higher in the Vitamin D deficient person.

So what exactly is Vitamin D and what does it do?

Vitamin D is actually not actually a vitamin.  It’s a prohormone and it’s responsible for over 2000 genes in the body.  Vitamin D fat-soluble and is naturally present in very few foods.  The main naturally occurring dietary sources are cod liver oil and salmon.  The only significant plant sources of vitamin D are mushrooms, in particular shitakes.  When mushrooms are exposed to UV light, the level of vitamin D increases dramatically.

Some foods are fortified with Vitamin D, such as homogenized milk.  It is also produced endogenously when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. The Vitamin D you get from sun exposure, food, and supplements is biologically inert and needs to be activated in your body.  There are two activations, called hydroxylations required to produce active Vitamin D.   The first occurs in your liver, which converts pro- vitamin D to 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], also known as calcidiol. The second occurs in your kidney and forms  1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)₂D], also known as calcitriol.

The main role of Vitamin D is to promote calcium absorption in your gut and to maintain the level of calcium in your blood. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen. Together with calcium, vitamin D can help protect you from osteoporosis.

Vitamin D has other roles in your body in controlling cell growth, neuromuscular activities, immune function, and reduction of inflammation.  There are many genes controlled by vitamin D, including those that regulate cell growth, differentiation, and death.

Common Conditions and Symptoms Associated with Vitamin D deficiency

1-      Obesity and excess weight

2-      High blood pressure

3-      Osteoporosis and osteopenia

4-      Autism

5-      Autoimmune conditions (such as Hashimotos, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis)

6-      Cancer

7-      Depression

8-      Asthma

9-      Migraines

10-  Cystic fibrosis

11-  Diabetes(both types 1 and 2)

12-  Multiple sclerosis

13-  Schizophrenia

14-  Epilepsy

15-  Osteoarthritis

16-  PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)

17-  Musculoskeletal pain, including joint pain and low back pain

18-  Muscle weakness

19-  Poor balance

20-  Systemic inflammation

21-  Fibromyalgia

Tips to Improve Your Vitamin D Status

• Get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine for at least 20 – 30 minutes a day during, preferably when the sun is highest in the sky.
• Avoid sunscreen for a full 20 – 30 minutes.
• Expose your arms and legs.  You need to expose 40% of your skin to make sufficient Vitamin D.
• Be sure to avoid washing the exposed parts with soap for at least 48 hours to give your body a chance to absorb all he Vitamin D it produced as a result of the sunshine exposure.
• Get tested for vitamin D.  The 25, hydroxyl vitamin D test is the one most commonly used.
• Supplement with Vitamin D if you’re low.

The older you get the more unhealthy you are, the harder it is for you to make Vitamin D.  During the winter in all locations north of Atlanta, Georgia, it is virtually impossible to get enough vitamin D, even with mid day sun exposure.  If you are darkly pigmented, you’ll need more sun exposure to make sufficient Vitamin D.

Vitamin D Supplementation

If you’re unable to get your daily dose of sunshine, then take a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D3 is best absorbed and utilized.  It’s usually from lanolin, which is from sheep.  If you prefer a vegan source, the only one I know about is Vitamin Code Raw Vitamin D3.  Vitamin D2, a less well absorbed form of vitamin D, is another vegan option.

In general, Vitamin D supplementation is much less effective than sun exposure.  It’s best to get sunlight exposure as much as possible and only use the supplements when sunlight exposure is not possible.  However, it’s best to test to determine whether you’re getting enough.  So many factors affect how well you derive Vitamin D from sunlight.  Most people just don’t get enough.  Even if you get plenty of sun exposure, it’s possible to become Vitamin D deficient.

You can overdose on Vitamin D.  That’s why I recommend a baseline test before starting supplementation.  You cannot overdose on Vitamin D via sunlight exposure, but you can with supplementation.

According to Dr. Mercola, you may need 3000 units of vitamin D per 100 lbs of body weight to correct a deficiency.  In the case of cancer or severe auto immune disease, optimal may be in the range of 5000 units per 100 lbs of body weight.  The human body, given the right conditions, can make up to up to 20,000 units in a day!

Vitamin D supplementation can be helpful for combating acute infectious disease, like the flu or a cold.  In this case, you should take 2000 units /kg per of body weight each day for 3 days.

Vitamin D has a long half life, which means that you can take it once a week rather than daily.

Vitamin D Testing

Testing for Vitamin D is very important to make sure you optimize your levels and avoid overdose.  You should test 25-Hydroxy vitamin D not the more expensive 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin d.

You can get tested by going to Directlabs.com

Learn more about Vitamin D testing at Lab Tests Online.   This is a site where you can find information about any lab test.  It is very thorough and informative.

I have found in my practice that it’s SO important to get vitamin D tested …not just once but every 3 months until your levels are in the optimal range (I target for 75 in general, but since there are so many factors involved, I tailor my recommendation to the person).

Vitamin D Levels — what’s optimal?

For anyone with levels below 20 I generally recommend 10,000 and sometimes more for 3 months then recommend retesting.

In many cases the levels come up to the 30s by then and I recommend the same for another 3 months.  If the levels come up higher than 30′s, I’d probably drop that down a bit and retest in 3 months.  If lower, I would increase the dose and monitor again soon.

The key is testing.  If someone is really low and has serious conditions, like autoimmunity, I often recommend higher doses and retesting sooner.

If you decide to skip the test and just supplement with 2000-4000 IU you run the risk of not correcting the problem.  If you supplement with 10,000 – 20,000 without testing, you run the risk of vitamin D excess.

It’s important to work with a trained practitioner.  Fortunately it doesn’t have to be one on one anymore.  I’ve pioneered training people to assess themselves with my guidance in cost-effective group programs, where you do the assessment and can ask me questions to guide you.  The program is called Assess Your Own Body Chemistry and it’s intended to teach you to read your own body’s signs, symptoms and lab tests so you can create a nutrition plan customized to your needs.

Additional reading on Vitamin D from Dr. Joe Mercola

[1] Mercola.com “Daily Sunlight Can Keep Cancer Away” August 7, 2008

[2] Mercola.com “Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year” August 24, 2007

[3] Dr. Joe Mercola Comments How Much Vitamin Do You Need?

[4] Video by Dr. Joe Mercola.   1 hour video with lots of details about Vitamin D

Medical research papers on the Vitamin D cancer connection

[1]Annals of Epidemiology April 14, 2009  Dr. Cedric Garland

[2] Annals of Epidemiology July 2009, Volume 19, Issue 7, Pages 468-483

[3] Science Daily, “New Model of Cancer Development: Low Vitamin D Levels May Have Role” May 26, 2009

[4] The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology March 2007; 103(3-5):708-11

[5] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2007; 85(6):1586-91.

[6] American Journal of Epidemiology October 12, 2007

Question of the day:

Have you been tested for Vitamin D yet?  If yes, what was your level?  How much are you supplementing if low?

With Love and Gratitude,

Dr. Ritamarie

Weight Loss, Hormone Balance and Your Immune System

Weight loss is a goal for so many people I consult with.  I actually encourage my clients to stop referring to losing weight and move towards thinking about letting go of weight or dropping weight or releasing weight.  When I lose something, I usually intend to find it.  When you talk about losing weight, your subconscious gets the message that you’ve been parted from something dear to you and makes every effort to help you find it again.  So your language can actually be working against you when you talk about weight loss.

I recorded an interview with Tom Nicoli of Premier Summits for his upcoming event called  called “Dozens of Easy, Proven Ways to Lose Weight… and Keep It Off”.

Tom and I havd a lively and informative chat about how your immune system and hormones can be preventing you from achieving your ideal weight, even if you’re eating light and exercising.

A few highlights from our conversation:

• When you’re stressed, your adrenals secrete the hormone cortisol goes up and DHEA goes down, leading to increased insulin production and fat accumulation around your waist
• Very low calorie diets inhibit the enzyme that converts the thyroid hormone T4 to the active form, T3, thus decreasing your metabolism and causing you to gain weight rather than lose it.
• As men age, the hormone testosterone  decreases and more of their testosterone gets converted to estrogen, which naturally slows fat burning , as a part of facilitating fat storage in preparation for fertility, birth and lactation.
• High levels of insulin, released when you eat sugar and many high carbohydrate foods,  can actually suppress growth hormone and lead to increased fat storage.
• Eating close to bedtime suppresses your natural growth hormone surge at night, leading to increased fat storage.

There were lots more gems shared, including information about leptin and ghrellin, gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases and their effect on your weight.

The interview will air on February 11.

If you sign-up for the FREE Premier Summit event, ” Dozens of Easy, Proven Ways to Lose Weight… and Keep It Off” , you’ll get access to my interview and 19 others related to weight management.