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Eat Well.  Feel Great.

Why Nutrition is Important

I’m always amazed how many people treat their cars better than they treat their bodies.  I’ve had my share of abusing my body, especially with the fast-food, no-sleep habits I learned in medical school.  Most people I know think they know what eating healthy is supposed to look like.  Several years ago, I was in the supermarket when I bumped into my friend, two-time Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist, Oleg Protopopov and his wife Ludmila.  Oleg happened to look in my shopping cart and saw that among the fruits and vegetables, I had pre-made pasta and sauce in there.  He shook his head sadly at me and said in his thick Russian accent, “You’re a doctor.  You should know better.  This isn’t good food.” Needless to say, I was flabbergasted at the time because I really thought eating low fat, vegetarian pasta was healthy.  Years later, I laugh every time I think of that incident because Oleg was right.  I had no idea what eating healthy really meant.  

Although there is no excuse for the inadequate nutritional training in medical schools, the average person hears the same old spiel about eating healthy.  Some of it is good, like the advice to eat fewer processed foods, but some of it is downright harmful, like the advice to eat low fat.  Slick advertising, medical mythology, and governmental ignorance have perpetuated poor nutritional habits in America.  I’m not here to force you to eat the way I eat.  On the contrary, I’m here to educate you on the basics of what your body needs to heal your chronic pain.  Your optimal diet might be quite different from mine but certain basics will be the same if we’re both eating “healthy”.

Without adequate fuel such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins, the body cannot produce energy and repair itself.  Your Qi (energy) battery will be low.  Most people understand this.  Adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals are hard to come by even with a whole food diet because of the chronic depletion of nutrients from our soil.  Nutrients in food help to fuel many of the processes necessary for proper function of the cells including cellular communication, energy production, detoxification, cellular repair, and cellular growth to name a few.  If you feed your body crappy food (excuse the terminology), your body will not perform as it was intended to, and that can lead to chronic pain.

Although an entire book could be written just on nutrition, this chapter is going to focus on some basics to get you started.  I’m guessing that most people who are looking for a holistic approach to healing chronic pain understand that there are few “quick fixes” in life and are thus willing to make the necessary holistic changes in their lifestyle in order to heal.  If you’re a processed food addict, on the other hand, some of these suggestions may seem alien, so I’m going to divide my pain relief nutritional guidelines into three different “levels” of sophistication: Pain Relief Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.  You can read each one and decide which “level” you feel like committing to.  Any change in the right direction is better than nothing, so please don’t feel you have to adopt everything at once.  What I suggest is that you try what resonates with you first and see how it feels in your body, then “level up”, as the computer gamers would say, when you are ready for a greater commitment. 

 

Nutrition Myths

Let’s start with debunking some nutritional myths which have become “truths” that almost every person, at least in America, has learned through school, media and their doctors.  As an allopathically-trained physician, I absolutely loved medical school.  Nutrition seemed boring in comparison to learning about the latest drugs and surgery.  I would have made an excellent surgeon, and a compassionate one at that, save for the fact that I’m not a morning person and dislike getting up at 5AM.  Thankfully, my being trained in family medicine made me more open to holistic ways of treating illness.  Unfortunately, I really didn’t get any practical education in nutrition until I sought it out because of my own chronic pain and gut issues.  So I’m going to share with you a few nutritional myths that even I once believed so you understand the reasons for my recommendations that follow.

 

Nutrition Myth #1: Eating Low Fat is Good for You

I still remember telling my father, who has diabetes and high cholesterol, that the best diet for him would be a low fat diet.  Doctors had learned in medical school that this was the best type of diet for people with high cholesterol and heart disease.  It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it, that eating low fat, especially low saturated fat, would be healthy?  Obesity is an ever-increasing problem in America and even young children are being diagnosed regularly with Type II diabetes.  This type of diabetes, caused by obesity, used to be called “adult-onset” diabetes.  If more and more people are getting fat, it seems to make sense that we should cut down on our fat consumption.  Or does it? 

Most of the saturated fat consumed in America is from animal products, so we were told years ago to tell our patients to decrease consumption of red meat and saturated fat.  But here’s the problem: I assumed that the scientific data on this advice was solid, i.e. that countries with high saturated meat-filled diets all had worse levels of heart disease.   Shockingly, this assumption was wrong. 

Apparently, the widely-touted study conducted by biochemist Ansel Keyes excluded data from countries that had low rates of heart disease despite high fat consumption and countries with high rates of heart disease with low fat consumption.  Now, this famous study from the 1950’s takes center stage in the controversial but highly entertaining movie, Fat Head.  This movie explains in graphical ways, how Keyes had data from 22 different countries, but he conveniently threw out data from countries that didn’t match his hypothesis.  Nevertheless, via political alliances, the scientific community eventually adopted his lipid hypothesis of heart disease.

The alarming rate of obesity really sky-rocketed once Americans were told to eat “low fat”.  Want to know why Americans are fatter than people are in most other first world countries?  I believe it is because of several factors.  Factor number one is that nowhere in the world is there a higher consumption of processed food than there is in North America.  Americans consuming processed food eat plenty of empty calories devoid of nutrients.  The body, thus being starved of nutrients, hungers for more, and thus calorie consumption rises to meet the perceived starvation.  This is a great way for corporate food manufacturers to guarantee giant profits. 

One of my patients, a snack food distributor, once told me that his buddy, a corporate food insider, revealed that food companies add additives like maltodextrin in processed food in order to make people addicted to it.  I’ve heard this from many other reliable sources, so I’m not surprised.  No wonder people in France, who consume high fat diets consisting of meat, butter, dairy and cream have half the heart disease rates of Americans.  They just don’t eat as much packaged food as we do.

Factor number two may be the fact that Americans consume large amounts of sugar, a fairly addictive substance in its own right.  Many experts now believe that excessive sugar consumption leads to an overabundance of insulin secretion by the pancreas, causing it to wear out and promote Type II diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome.  Obese people with Metabolic Syndrome have a higher risk of Type II diabetes, heart disease and stroke.  The U.S. sweetener market is the largest and most diverse in the world.  The United States is the largest consumer of sweeteners, including high fructose corn syrup, and is one of the largest global sugar importers.  In the 1700’s Americans consumed approximately 4 pounds of sugar per capita per year.  Now consumption has grown to over 130 pounds of sweetener per capita per year. 

Sometimes it is obvious where the sugar is coming from.  Foods like cookies, cakes, candy, ice cream, brownies and syrup are easily spotted as sugar-rich.  Sugar and other sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup in prepared foods such as ketchup, canned vegetables and fruit, and peanut butter can make up 25% of our sugar consumption.  Fruit juice is also loaded with sugar.  Here’s where it gets sneaky though.  Packaged “low fat” foods are often high in hidden sugar in order to make it tasty.  Marketed as healthy, low fat processed food can be just as high in calories as regular fat versions and consumers wouldn’t know otherwise because they assume low fat must be good.

Factor three involved in the growing obesity problems in America may be the fact that toxins that we ingest or absorb through our skin and lungs are so prevalent that the body is ill-equipped to get rid of them fast enough, so it has to store these toxins in the safest place possible where they’ll do less damage.  So where are these toxins commonly stored?  You guessed it!  In our fat.  In other words, we actually “need” to be fatter to store all the toxins that would otherwise damage major organs like the brain or kidneys. 

One of the basic problems of eating low fat, aside from the consumption of sugar-laden products many American turn to, is the body’s requirement for adequate fat in order to keep cells functioning properly.  Fat is required for cellular membranes and the absorption and assimilation of fat-soluble vitamins.   The following is an excerpt from the Weston A.  Price article on understanding fats (reproduced with permission):

Contrary to the accepted view, which is not scientifically based, saturated fats do not clog arteries or cause heart disease.  In fact, the preferred food for the heart is saturated fat; and saturated fats lower a substance called Lp(a), which is a very accurate marker for proneness to heart disease.
Saturated fats play many important roles in the body chemistry.  They strengthen the immune system and are involved in inter-cellular communication, which means they protect us against cancer.  They help the receptors on our cell membranes work properly, including receptors for insulin, thereby protecting us against diabetes.  The lungs cannot function without saturated fats, which is why children given butter and full-fat milk have much less asthma than children given reduced-fat milk and margarine.  Saturated fats are also involved in kidney function and hormone production.
Saturated fats are required for the nervous system to function properly, and over half the fat in the brain is saturated.  Saturated fats also help suppress inflammation.  Finally, saturated animal fats carry the vital fat-soluble Vitamins A, D and K2, which we need in large amounts to be healthy.
Human beings have been consuming saturated fats from animal products, milk products and the tropical oils for thousands of years; it is the advent of modern processed vegetable oil that is associated with the epidemic of modern degenerative disease, not the consumption of saturated fats.

Saturated fats, found in animal meat and tropical oils such as coconut oil and palm oil, play an important role in the healthy function of our body’s cells.  Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes and give our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.  Calcium consumption in America is high due to the perception that it prevents and treats osteoporosis.  However, in order for calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.  Certain saturated fats are the preferred food for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated and the heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.  Lastly, short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract. 

 

Nutrition Myth #2: Eating Red Meat is Bad for You

Along the lines of the lipid hypothesis and the idea that eating saturated fat from meat sources is bad for you, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) published a study in 2011 in the Archives of Internal Medicine that revealed that people who ate more meat, both red and white, had a higher risk of dying than those who ate less.  Unfortunately, because the study was observational (not a true controlled experiment), the folks eating the most red meat were also the least physically active, the most likely to smoke, and the least likely to take a multivitamin.  They also had higher body mass index (BMI), higher alcohol intake, and a trend towards less healthy non-red-meat food choices.  The researchers tried to “adjust” mathematically for these factors, but it is still an artificial statistical method which cannot truly take into account the gravity of other unhealthy lifestyle factors.  Here is a great article explaining why the NCI study may not be relevant to you.

On the other hand, there are other studies that reveal that vegetarians live longer lives than meat eaters.  So what are the problems with eating meat?  Plenty...if you eat conventionally-raised meat.  If it isn’t the saturated fat or the higher cholesterol content of meat, what is it?  The answer lies in the type of food that conventionally-raised animals eat themselves: genetically modified corn feed laced with hormones and antibiotics.  GMO corn is not only toxic because it is genetically modified, but corn itself is basically turned into sugar in order to fatten up the animals it is fed to.  Fat is a great storage place for toxins, so where do you think the antibiotics, GMO toxins and hormones end up?  On our dinner plate and waistlines, if we’re not careful.

To my knowledge, there has never been a prospective study (a controlled experiment) whereby vegetarians are compared to meat eaters who only eat local organic meat and eggs.  Local, grass-fed, pastured animals produce meat that is much leaner and contains higher levels of beneficial Omega-3s than does conventionally-produced meat.  In addition, the meat is more alkaline and less acidic, something that is beneficial for the body.  Meat is one of the most nutrient-dense forms of food available.  The B vitamins, fat-soluble Vitamins A and D, and minerals like zinc, to name a few, are much more concentrated in meat and are more easily assimilated than those found in plant food.

If you’re a vegetarian for humanitarian reasons, I’m not going to try to convince you to start eating meat, but if you are vegetarian only for health reasons, I want you to reconsider.  If you choose to stick with vegetarianism, you have to make sure you make up for the lack of amino acids, good fats and fat-soluble vitamins found in meat.  In addition, Vitamin B is often lacking in vegan diets, so consulting a holistic nutritionist is a must.  I’ve seen some teenagers become vegetarians because they think it is the morally hip thing to do, only to fill their tummies with chips, salsa, crackers, cereal and granola bars, instead of whole foods like vegetables, greens, and sprouted legumes, nuts and seeds.

When it comes to chronic pain, what I’ve noticed is that people who also have chronic stress on their adrenal glands (stress organs), seem to have less pain when they eat more healthy sources of animal foods.  According to my traditional Chinese medicine colleagues, patients found deficient in Qi and Blood, need the higher and more easily assimilated forms of energy found in animal food.  For patients who are willing to eat fish, I often recommend wild salmon and sardines.

Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon from Vital Choice, where I buy my sushi-grade fish, is rich in healthy Omega-3s and an antioxidant called astaxanthin.  Astaxanthin gives salmon its red hue.  Farmed salmon do not eat what nature provides, so they have to be given synthetic astaxanthin in order to produce the red color in the meat.  Otherwise, the flesh turns out gray.  Farmed salmon have more marbling (in other words are fattier) than wild salmon, but don’t be fooled that the extra fat is better. 

Farm-raised salmon have been found to have much higher levels of PCBs, dioxin, and other toxic cancer-causing chemicals than wild salmon, according to a recent study.  Salmon raised in farms in Northern Europe had the highest contaminant levels.  This was followed by salmon raised in North America and Chile.  The reason for the higher toxin levels is thought to be because of the feed used in fish farms.  Farm-raised salmon also have more antibiotics administered by weight compared to any other kind of livestock.  In addition, farm-raised salmon do not have the same omega 3:6 profile as wild salmon.  Farm-raised fish contain considerably higher levels of omega 6 fatty acids, the kind that apparently we consume too much of relative to omega 3’s.  This imbalance can promote inflammation.

I can really taste the difference between real wild Alaskan salmon and farmed salmon.  The former tastes fresh and succulent, while the latter tastes greasy.

 

Nutritional Myth #3: You Should Eat Whole Grains

The base of the former USDA’s food pyramid is the recommendation of 6-11 servings of grains, preferably whole grains.  Americans were taught that the basis of a healthy diet was the consumptions of grains such as wheat, corn and rice.  What most people fail to realize is that with the advent of the agricultural revolution, which was fairly recent in human history, people actually became shorter and less healthy when they began eating grains regularly.  Today, Americans who are health conscious often make sure they eat whole grains in the form of whole grain toast, cereal or pasta.  However, eating grains is not required for optimal health.  As I’ve alluded to in previous chapters, wheat is responsible for much of our inflammatory disorders including chronic joint and muscle pain. 

Did you know that two slices of whole wheat bread, although more nutritious than white bread, raise blood sugar more than a candy bar, according to Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly?  Recurrent high blood sugars make the pancreas work extra hard and may lead to Type II Diabetes and obesity.  The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load are tools you can search for on the internet.  The ability of a particular food to raise the blood sugar is called the glycemic index.  The higher the index, the more the pancreas has to work to produce insulin to control the blood sugar levels.  Glucose, the simplest molecule of sugar, has a value of 100, so it is the standard to which other foods are compared.  A typical candy bar has a moderate glycemic index of 41, whereas wheat bread has a high index of 72.  The glycemic load, however, accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food.  A GL greater than 20 is considered high; a GL of 11-19 is considered medium; and a GL of 10 or less is considered low.  Carrots, for example, have a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load.  In other words you’d have to eat one and a half pounds of carrots at one time to get your blood sugar to spike as much as it does by your consuming a piece of whole grain toast.  Few people eat that many carrots at once!

Most of our processed foods contain grains in the form of wheat, oats, and corn.  Most of the corn produced in this country is genetically modified, as is the soy, so it would be best to stay away from products containing corn unless it is labeled non-GMO corn.  Even many cereals marketed to gluten-free consumers sold in health food stores contain genetically modified corn, so you have to be vigilant if you want to remove toxic food from your diet so your body can heal itself. 

Many people erroneously believe that they must consume whole grains to get their daily intake of fiber.  Whole fruits and vegetables, however, contain more fiber than grains, are more filling, and do not spike the blood sugar.  Eating grains can cause excessive insulin secretion by the pancreas, resulting in a lowering of blood sugar and an unnatural increase in hunger.  People who have to eat every two to three hours, because of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), feel much better when they remove grains from their diets.  By adding in more meat protein and saturated fat, their blood sugar stabilizes and they are less ravenous.

Wheat is actually addictive according to William Davis, MD, author of Wheat Belly.  You can actually experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop eating wheat that include temporary weakness, irritability, and brain fog.  Luckily this only lasts about a week and if you eat more nutritious vegetable-based carbohydrates during this time and remain brain balanced with LifeWave Y-Age Aeon patches, the withdrawal will be a whole lot easier I find.

I’m not necessarily recommending that you must cut out all grains because it can be challenging to say the least given our cultural habits, but getting rid of the most inflammatory of the bunch, wheat (and other gluten-containing grains) and GMO corn, will do a lot to help your body heal from chronic pain.  Sprouted non-glutinous grains such as sprouted brown rice, quinoa and millet are preferred and are now available either at your local health food store or online.  The traditional way of preparing grains, such as soaking and fermenting them in order to neutralize anti-nutrients such as phytates, are much healthier choices.  According to Sally Fallon, co-author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, whole rice and whole millet contain lower amounts of phytates than do other grains so it is not absolutely necessary to soak them.  However, they should be gently cooked for at least two hours in a high-mineral, gelatinous broth.  This will neutralize some of the phytates they do contain and provide additional minerals to compensate for those that are still bound.  The gelatin in the broth will greatly facilitate digestion.  Check out the Healthy Home Economist website on how to make healthy bone broth. 

If you have a lot of abdominal discomfort or significant leaky gut symptoms (see Chapter on Heal the Gut), then going completely grain-free, at least for several months, may improve your chronic pain symptoms much quicker. 

 

Nutritional Myth #4: Milk is Good for You

Practically everyone in North America has seen the Got Milk? campaigns using famous celebrities and athletes.  Like most doctors, I recommended dairy products for most of my patients so they would get enough calcium in their diet to prevent osteoporosis.  I didn’t know, however, that other nutrients are necessary for healthy bone to be formed, including magnesium, fat-soluble Vitamins D and K.  The Wulzen Factor, discovered by researcher Rosalind Wulzen, is a compound present in raw animal fat.  This “anti-stiffness” factor protects humans and animals from calcification of the joints i.e. degenerative arthritis.  It also protects against hardening of the arteries, calcification of the pineal gland and cataracts.  Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk not only do not thrive, they develop joint stiffness!  Their symptoms are reversed when raw butterfat is added back into their diet.  Pasteurization destroys the Wulzen factor which is present only in raw butter, cream and whole milk.  The Wulzen factor is another reason why we shouldn’t be eating dairy if it is pasteurized and/or fat-skimmed.

Dairy products are considered “too damp” by traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners and can lead to joint pain, intestinal overgrowth and sinus congestion, but I wonder if raw dairy that is cultured with probiotic organisms has the same negative effect.  I doubt it.  Jordan Rubin, founder of Garden of Life and Beyond Organic, suffered from a life threatening intestinal illness at the young age of 21 and might have died if it weren’t for a holistic nutritionist who taught him how to eat whole foods, healthy meat and raw cultured dairy (which was easy to obtain in California).  If raw dairy is truly too dangerous for human consumption, then Jordan Rubin should be dead by now because he drank the stuff like it was going out of style.  Instead, he quickly regained his health and in three weeks put on 29 pounds to his sickly 110 pound frame.  In addition to probiotic supplements, Jordan owes much of his intestinal healing to the consumption of raw full-fat cultured dairy from pasture-raised animals.  Cultured dairy is made with probiotics, beneficial organisms that proliferate in the intestines.  For a great resource to learn more about raw milk and to connect with raw dairy farmers in the USA and Canada, go to www.realmilk.com.

Where I live, raw cultured dairy is not legal to sell in stores, so honestly, I haven’t tried it.  Dairy is definitely “damp-inducing” for most of my patients and thus contributes to achy joints and muscles.  If, however, raw cultured dairy was available, I’d definitely try it to see how my body would react.  Jordan Rubin’s Beyond Organic company sells raw cheese and low-temperature pasteurized whole milk from pastured green-fed, green-finished cows.  I’m not sure that raw milk enthusiasts would endorse any sort of pasteurization, even low temperature, but we do know that the beneficial enzymes in milk are not killed using this method.  Go to this article with microscopic photos of raw milk versus low temperature pasteurized milk and decide for yourself. 

Just in case you’re worried about being calcium deficient, you should know that magnesium deficiency is by and large much more prevalent than calcium deficiency.  Because the relative ratio of these two minerals in your body is so important, magnesium deficiency actually upsets the body’s ability to use calcium properly.  There is plenty of calcium in vegetables, so if your diet contains plenty of whole food, you needn’t worry about calcium deficiency.  I make bone broth almost every weekend in order to get the bone-building minerals and co-factors naturally found in animal bones.  Worry more about getting enough magnesium.

 

Nutritional Myth #5: Caffeine is harmless

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine teachings, caffeine stresses the kidney organ.  It also stresses the adrenal glands which produce the flight or fight reaction through neurotransmitters such as adrenaline.  When these organs are stressed, it can actually weaken the corresponding muscle groups that are on the same neurological circuit.  The psoas muscle, also called the hip flexor, is often unbalanced or weakened due to caffeine-related imbalances in the kidney organ according to holistic chiropractor, Dr. Bradley Nelson, creator of the Body Code Healing System.  Dr.  Nelson, who has literally seen thousands of people with back pain over his seventeen years in practice, feels that caffeine is the number one toxic substance contributing to chronic back pain.

Aside from causing pain, caffeine revs up your fight or flight response, literally draining your Qi (energy) stores.  If you’re one of these people who think it’s great that you don’t get stimulated by caffeine, think again.  If you’re not feeling stimulated and the caffeine is not disturbing your sleep, it means that your stress-handling system is already exhausted and is now in the danger zone.  I find that once I get my patients off caffeine for a month or more, they regain the ability to produce the proper neurochemicals in response to caffeine.  In other words, they start feeling jittery again (adrenaline rush) whenever they consume caffeine.

Lastly, the protein in coffee is the most common cross-reactor to gluten.    Because it is the protein in the coffee that is the trigger, switching to decaf coffee does not solve the problem if you’re like the one-in-three people who are gluten-sensitive.

 

Nutrition Advice All Experts Agree On

Depending on which expert’s advice you choose to follow, it can be challenging to decide between a mostly plant-based diet, versus an omnivorous diet that includes meat because the studies are sometimes contradictory.  All the experts, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, however, agree on some basic things that I want you to pay close attention to.  Here are the recommendations:

         Eat little or no processed food
         Eliminate excess sugar/sweetener consumption
         Avoid soda
         Avoid food with toxins such as pesticides, herbicides
         Avoid food additives and chemicals such as MSG, aspartame, neotame, sucralose, food colorings, artificial flavors etc.
         Eat more whole foods, including more fruits and vegetables
         Avoid fast food which is laden with sugar, rancid oils and additives
         Avoid fried foods because the oil used to cook them is rancid
         Avoid table salt because it is highly processed and devoid of minerals
         Reduce consumptions of “white” refined carbohydrates, including anything made with white flour, white sugar and white rice
         Fats like extra virgin olive oil, organic flaxseed oil and avocados are good for you
         Raw foods, if your digestion can handle it, contain more “energy” or “Qi” than cooked foods, so include some in your diet, especially during the warmer months
         Take a daily quality multivitamin/mineral supplement (preferably whole food variety)

 

Pain Relief Nutritional Guidelines

Now, let’s see what you’re willing to change in your diet in order to help your body heal faster.  Below are three levels of dietary recommendations.  The first level, Pain Relief Basic, is the simplest and the Pain Relief Advanced is the most challenging.   Even if you know intuitively that you’d benefit the most from following the Advanced guidelines, don’t beat yourself up if you really feel too overwhelmed or stressed to follow it right now.  Do what you can.  Any small amount of positive change can work wonders.  When you’re ready, you can move to the next level.

 

Pain Relief Basic Level

Start at this level if you don’t understand the difference between processed food and whole food.  Processed food is food that has been manufactured from its natural state into something that is often sold in bags, boxes, jars, cans and fancy cartons.  Highly processed foods have much of the mineral nutrition taken out of it during processing.  Some processed foods are more highly processed than others.  You can tell often by the number of ingredients listed and whether you can pronounce them easily.  For example, take ice cream.  One brand may only have three or four ingredients such as cream, sugar, and vanilla, whereas another brand may have twenty ingredients including highly processed sugars such as high fructose corn syrup, soy (likely genetically modified), artificial flavors and colorings.

At this level, we will focus on minimizing the crappy…er, I mean, non-nutritious food and on increasing the more nutrient-dense foods.  The food “avoid” list is longer than the “eat” list at this level because we need to make sure you’re not poisoning your body when your goal is to heal your body from chronic pain.  Read the list below and check off what strategies you’re willing to undertake right now to improve your diet at this level:

 

Basic Level Avoid List:

         Artificial coloring
         Artificial flavors
         Monosodium glutamate (MSG, torula yeast, yeast extract)
         Products with artificial sweeteners including aspartame, neotame, saccharin and sucralose
         Products that contain high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup
         Soda of any type
         Junk food
         Pre-made foods in grocery stores such as TV dinners, coleslaw, breaded chicken, potato salad etc.
         Sugary foods especially those made with grains: cookies, cakes, pies, brownies etc.
         Processed food, especially if not made with certified organic ingredients
         White foods such as white bread, white sugar, white flour, white rice
         Non-organic junk food in general
         Foods containing trans-fats like margarines or fake buttery spreads.  Look for words such as “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated”
         Table salt
         Microwaving your food. 

 

Microwaving destroys the energetic structure of food and makes it “dead” so it becomes a foreign toxin that the body has to get rid of.  Instead, bake, steam, lightly sauté your food.  Reheating your food in a small toaster oven is also safe.

 

Basic Level Eating Guidelines:

         Eat more whole food, less processed food
         Eat a variety of seasonal fruit and vegetables
         Eat a colorful variety of vegetables daily, at least during lunch and dinner
         Add more leafy greens to your diet, including raw if your digestion is hearty and can handle it
         Eat more fish containing an abundance of beneficial Omega-3 oils like salmon and sardines
         Chew your food deliberately and slowly
         Sit while you’re eating and focus on your meal
         Use real raw honey that has never been heated (not for babies), stevia, maple syrup, coconut sap sugar, or unprocessed cane sugar as a sweetener if you need one, instead of white sugar or artificial sweeteners
         Drink at least half your weight in ounces of purified water daily
         Replace flavored drinks with healthy green tea, preferably organic

 

Pain Relief Intermediate Level

Once you are comfortable with most of the guidelines in the Basic level, you are ready to move up to the intermediate level.  Now that you have minimized your intake of processed foods, you can start being pickier about what you put in your body.  At this level, we want to avoid toxins like pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics and hormones in our food.  Conventionally-raised cattle are raised in tight quartered feed lots, standing in their own excrement for weeks on end.  The animals are not allowed to pasture and feed on greens, their natural diet.  Instead they are fed corn, a grain that is most often genetically modified, in order to fatten them up much faster than normal.  The starchiness of the corn “marbles” the meat with fat, but is it any wonder why it can fatten us up too?  Remember, the adage, “you are what you eat”?  Well, we can now update that with “you are what you eat, and what THEY eat”.

Eggs have been given a bad rap because of the cholesterol content of their yolks, but it is only oxidized cholesterol that may be truly harmful to our arteries and hearts (think powdered eggs).  If you like eggs, cooking them in a way that keeps the yoke “runny” rather than cooked will minimize oxidation.  The egg yolk is full of nutrients that the body can easily absorb, including twice as many antioxidants than are found in an apple: Vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K in addition to iron, biotin, zinc, lecithin and choline.  All of these help contribute to brain function, healthy metabolism and disease prevention.  The healthiest eggs to buy are from local farmers who let their hens pasture and eat what is in their natural environment.  The yolks are often brighter yellow-orange as compared to eggs found in the supermarket. 

Pasture-raised hens produce eggs with more healthful levels of Omega-3’s than are found in the eggs from conventionally raised hens.  The living conditions for conventionally raised hens are inhumane and stressful.  Chickens are lined up next to hundreds if not thousands of other chickens in caged pens and don’t even have room to turn around.  They, like the cows, may be fed genetically modified cornmeal, and some are bred so that their breasts grown unnaturally large, so much so, that some of these chickens can’t even walk because they are so top-heavy!  Check out Dr. Mercola’s website for some great videos on the subject.  Once you’ve seen them, you’ll never want to eat regular chicken ever again! 

I’m not even going to talk about what they do to conventionally-raised pigs because the last video I saw almost made me vomit.  There is much controversy in some nutrition circles on whether eating pork is healthy.  Many religious groups traditionally avoid pork but it is not clear why.  It is possible that parasites harboring in pigs are easily transferred to humans and thus the religious guidelines were created to avoid this problem. 

Recently I read an interesting study from the Weston A. Price Foundation Newsletter that used dark field blood analysis to determine whether eating unmarinated pork caused any negative effects on the blood as compared with eating marinated pork.  The study authors wanted to see if there was a scientifically valid reason why traditional cultures who consumed pork only did so after it was marinated.  In this study, they compared unmarinated pork with pork marinated 24 hours with apple cider vinegar, pastured prosciutto and pastured bacon from the same local farm that raise pork humanely and without antibiotics or hormones.  They also used unmarinated lamb as a control. 

Fascinatingly, in three healthy volunteers, their blood analysis was completely normal when eating each of the meats, with the exception of when they consumed unmarinated pork.  When they ate the unmarinated pork, their blood cells started stacking up on each other, an unhealthy state called rouleaux formation.  Since reading this study, I’ve only eaten bacon from a regional source and the one time I forgot and ate pork pot roast at someone’s house over Christmas, I immediately experienced hip pain.  I deduced that I was having an inflammatory reaction in my gut which resulted in the hip pain.

In addition to the Basic Level guidelines, here are the guidelines for the next level which minimizes dairy and gluten.

 

Intermediate Level Guidelines:

         Choose organic produce over conventionally grown produce, especially the fruits and vegetables in the Dirty Dozen, the ones most heavily laced with pesticides and herbicides
         Choose local or pasture-raised sources of beef, goat, lamb, poultry, and eggs over conventionally raised sources
         Choose local and/or humanely raised pork if you eat it and remember to marinate it overnight in the fridge (apple cider vinegar for example) before you cook it
         Choose Wild Alaskan Salmon and low mercury tuna if you like tuna.  I exclusively buy my raw sushi grade salmon from Vital Choice Seafood
         If you eat processed food, try to choose the organic versions that have been minimally processed and have few ingredients
         Eat leafy green vegetables daily if seasonal
         Eat two different vegetables with lunch and dinner
         Consider adding a “greens” superfood shake as part of your breakfast.  I use Amazing Grass, but there are many other good brands
         Go gluten-free, sticking to organic whole grains including gluten-free whole oats, brown rice, quinoa, millet and amaranth, soaking or fermenting them for maximal nutritional digestion
         Limit grains to one meal a day
         Minimize outside dining and bring your own food when you travel whenever possible
         Replace vegetable oils with organic extra virgin coconut oil, organic grass-fed butter or organic ghee for cooking
         Reduce consumption of vegetable oils with the exception of olive oil for salads
         Do not eat junk food (chips, candy, candy bars, cookies, cakes etc.)
         If you eat dairy, stick to raw or low-temperature pasteurized cultured dairy, such as kefir and max one serving per day
         If you eat nuts and seeds, it is best to buy them soon after harvesting, and store them in the fridge to prevent rancidity
         Use Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Crystal Salt (my favorite) in your food to add flavor and minerals
         If you eat soy or corn, make sure it is non-GMO
         Drink ½ your body weight in ounces of pure structured or spring water daily
         Make bone broths and drink one cup daily

 

Pain Relief Advanced Level

At this level, you will adopt everything in the basic and intermediate levels consistently.  In addition, you will consciously rotate your food so that you are not eating the same things day after day.  You will also be avoiding grains and dairy entirely.  This is the ideal diet for someone with a long history of intestinal issues likely related to leaky gut.  Once pain and abdominal symptoms are gone for a few months, you can start introducing gluten-free grains back into the diet slowly to see how you feel.  Grain, however, should never be a staple in the Advanced diet, which is similar to the Paleolithic diet, or Caveman diet.

 

Advanced Level Eating Guidelines:

         Eating exclusively organic fruits and vegetables; buying local whenever possible.
         Avoid all dairy except organic grass-fed butter or ghee.
         Add pasture-raised local eggs to your diet for extra nutrients and protein
         Go grain-free (no gluten, corn, oatmeal, spelt, quinoa, rice etc.)
         Eat pastured and/or organic land animal meats two meals a day and consider adding nutrient-dense pastured organ meat on a regular basis
         Make your own bone broths and drink 1 cup per day or cook it into your food
         Rotate your foods every day as much as possible so that you are not always eating the same thing, which can require some creativity.  Rotation helps to prevent the development of food sensitivities and gives you a more well-rounded nutritional profile
         If you eat nuts and seeds, buy organic, and soak or sprout them before eating.  If this is too much work, you can buy them sprouted online.  They are absolutely delicious this way
         If you eat legumes, make sure they are sprouted so that the anti-nutrients are washed away in the water used to soak them.  Some people do not digest the nutrients from legumes very well and do better eating meat.  I find this true of people who have blood type O.  If you know your blood type, this may be helpful to you.  Go to www.westonprice.org for more on sprouting your food
         If you eat soy, make sure it is organic and ideally fermented such as in miso, natto and tempeh because the nutrients are more bio-available that way and there are natural probiotics used in the fermenting
         Eat grass-fed organic butter, extra virgin coconut or palm oil instead of using highly processed vegetable oils with the exception of expeller pressed organic olive oil and flaxseed oil which, when raw, is very healthy according to most nutrition experts.
         Add fresh raw organic vegetable juices that you juice yourself on a regular basis, daily if you like.  I use the Omega 350 Vertical Masticating juicer because the juice lasts for up to 72 hours unlike juice from centrifugal juicers.  The device is easy to clean and has a small footprint thereby using up less counter space
         Buy most of your meat and produce from local farmers markets when available.  Otherwise shop at www.USWellnessMeats.com or Beyond Organic online stores
         Shop almost exclusively at your local health food store for most of your other groceries instead of at the regular supermarket
         Rarely dine in restaurants unless they purchase meats and produce from local farmers
         If you like sushi, eat Vital Choice wild Alaskan salmon whenever you can.  If you eat tuna, get low mercury tuna from Vital Choice.
         Make all your own salad dressings from scratch with organic olive and organic apple cider vinegar.  Personally I love Carlson’s Cod Liver Oil Lemon Flavored so much; it has become my favorite salad dressing!  You can get it at most health food stores or online. 

 

Is Eating Healthy Expensive?

It may seem to the average American that eating organic is much more expensive than purchasing cheap subsidized food products made by the corporate food giants.  The price tag of most organic food is indeed higher than conventional food, but making choices based solely on the sticker price is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Eating toxic or nutrient-sparse food is going to cost you one way or another.  If you could add up the true cost of poor eating, including medical bills, prescription drugs, time away from work, poor quality of life because of chronic diseases, and early death, it would be a no-brainer to eat well.  Furthermore, I have found that when people truly eat quality food, they actually are less hungry and may consume less food overall because the body is getting the nourishment it needs with fewer empty calories. 

 

Nutritional Supplements

I was taught, erroneously, in medical school that if my patients ate a healthy diet, they would never require supplements.  Unfortunately, most of us have not eaten purely organic food our entire lives and our soil was deemed nutrient depleted even back in the 1930s.  Can you imagine the nutrient depletion in our soils today with mono-culture agribusinesses producing most of the food in America?  It’s not a pretty thought.  You’d have to eat a heck of a lot of food to make up for what our food system lacks.  Furthermore, you need supplements to repair an unhealthy body. 

In my practice, supplements are chosen individually for each patient based on their muscle testing.  That being said, there are some basic supplements that are safe and beneficial that I recommend to almost everyone, especially those with chronic pain.  I’ve listed these below.  Keep in mind that the dosages that I recommend to patients can really vary based on their muscle testing, so the dose ranges I’ve given below fall under the most “common” recommended doses.

 

Hydration Supplements

As I mentioned in the chapter on hydration, there are many ways to get structured water.  If you haven’t read that chapter yet, you might want to do that now.  If you have an old natural spring nearby, this may be your best bet.  You might like to use Willard Water® supplements to make the water clusters smaller so that you get more water into your cells.  I’ve noticed an appreciable difference in how my body feels when I use the Willard Water® versus when I don’t.  When I use the Willard Water® consistently, my bowel movements are better, my body feels less thirsty, and my skating ability is improved.  Cellular hydration is essential if you’re experiencing chronic pain.

 

Probiotics

Probiotics play an important role in healing the gut and I think everyone should be taking them, especially if they’ve ever been on antibiotics or long term medications such as birth control or anti-inflammatory drugs.  Taking probiotics is a must in our modern society.  With the daily onslaughts of toxins and chemicals we are exposed to, our immune system needs all the help it can get.  The gut, functioning as an important part of our immune and nervous systems, stays healthy when it has enough “good” bacteria or yeast supporting it. 

Natural probiotics can be found in fermented foods and cultured dairy although I always recommend taking a supplement.  The brands I’m currently using the most that you can purchase online include: Culturelle, RAW Probiotics by Garden of Life, Prescript Assist, and Ethical NutrientsTM Intestinal Care DF and Florastor.  In the office, I also use GenestraTM HMF Replete and Integrative TherapeuticsTM Enterogenic Intensive100 (100 billion CFU per capsule) and Syntol AMD.  Available in pharmacies only is a brand called VSL#3 which contains 112.5 CFU per capsule.   A minimum of 10 billion CFU’s daily is preferred, and many people require more in order to rebalance their intestinal flora. 

A large number of people in my practice have an overgrowth of pathogenic yeast/fungus in their intestines, most likely from the use of antibiotics.  For these folks, many do well with Syntol AMD, a probiotic/prebiotic combination product that also contains specific enzymes to digest the cell walls of dead yeast attached to the bowel wall.  A prebiotic is a supplement that contains fiber “food” for the healthy bacteria probiotics.  The ones in Syntol AMD tend to cause less intestinal gas than do other prebiotic formulas. 

Often when one uses probiotics, the dying yeast can cause a severe “die-off” reaction as the cells burst open.  Its contents ferment in our bodies before they can be removed.  This detoxification reaction, also known as the Herxheimer reaction, can cause symptoms of fatigue, feverishness, chills, muscle aches, flu-like symptoms, headache and rash.  Syntol AMD has the ability to digest cellular components of the dead yeast before they ferment and cause uncomfortable detoxification reactions.  In my practice I use muscle testing to determine the best brand of probiotics for each patient along with the optimal dose. 

 

Magnesium

Magnesium is highly deficient in our society yet serves a vital function in over 300 biochemical reactions in our body.  Magnesium deficiency causes weak bones, muscular contraction and pain.  Toxins can accumulate due to magnesium deficiency which can also cause or contribute to chronic pain.  Without magnesium, your cells cannot manufacture the molecule of energy, ATP. 

For people in chronic pain who do not have diarrhea, I will use a combination of oral magnesium in the form of an amino acid chelate, such as magnesium glycinate or magnesium bisglycinate, and transdermal magnesium oil or lotion.  Oral dosages commonly range from 300 to 800 mg a day in divided doses, cutting back if one experiences diarrhea.  If someone has fibromyalgia, I’ll often use Ethical Nutrients Malic Magnesium tablets (also called Metagenics Fibroplex when you get it from your doctor).  Transdermal magnesium doses range from 10 sprays to upwards of 48 sprays per day for Ancient Minerals magnesium oil or around three teaspoons of Ancient Minerals magnesium lotion per day.  Again, in my practice, I will muscle test each patient to determine his optimal dose.

Another form of magnesium I’m using more and more is liquid ionic magnesium.   The brand I use is called Nutrilink Mag Force and it is available online at www.nutrilinkenergy.com.  Mag Force uses state-of-the-art technology to reduce magnesium to the smallest atomic level so that assimilation in the cells is enhanced.  Unlike other ionic magnesium formulas, Mag Force is “charged” with subtle energy.  In other words, it is “alive” with Qi whereas most other formulas have not been enhanced this way.  I also use their Nutrilink Mineral Force formula in the morning.  It is also “charged” with subtle energy.  You may wish to get both.  The only major disadvantage of the Nutrilink formulas is that they need to be refrigerated and they are difficult to transport when you are travelling  because they are liquid. 

Currently, I take upwards of nine Metagenics Fibroplex (Ethical Nutrients Malic Magnesium) per day in divided doses as that is what my body muscle tests for.  Sounds like a huge dose, I know, but people with a history of fibromyalgia often require that much.  In addition, I use about 3 teaspoons of magnesium lotion in the morning and about one ounce of Nutrilink Mag Force before bed.  Often, I also take about an ounce of Mineral Force in the morning with my green superfood shake.

 

Fish Oil

The omega-3 fats found in fish oil act as anti-inflammatory agents in our bodies.  There are also many plant sources of omega-3, such as flax, walnuts and hemp, but many people cannot efficiently convert these short-chain omega-3 fats to the forms needed by our bodies.  Fish such as wild Alaskan salmon or sardines contain healthy omega-3 oils.  Interestingly, grass-fed meat has similar omega-3 profiles, but conventionally raised meat does not.  If you do not eat omega-3-rich fish or grass-fed meat several times a week, you should consider taking fish oil. 

When it comes to fish oil, it is important to buy a quality brand.  There are many brands on the market, so it is important for you to purchase a brand that is as pure as possible and thus safer and more effective.  I do not trust brands you can get over the counter in drug stores, mainly because their production standards are not ideal and they only meet the minimum American standards for purity.  Furthermore, many are made by pharmaceutical companies who do not necessarily have your best interests at heart.  What you are looking for are brands that process the fish within hours of catching it.  This requires smaller fishing practices. 

Norwegians are well known for their higher standards of fish oil, so purchasing brands like Nordic Naturals or Carlson’s will guarantee fresher oil.  Certain brands like Quell and Minami use a toxin-free low temperature process that supposedly maintains the healthy structure of the oil so that it doesn’t get heat-damaged.  Of late, I’ve been gravitating to minimally-processed salmon oil because the antioxidant astaxanthin is naturally part of the oil and it is helpful to those experiencing chronic pain.  I’ve been using Biopure because my colleague, neurotoxin expert, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt searched the world over to find the best fish oil which could be made available to regular consumers. 

Some experts have been using krill oil instead of fish oil because it contains more concentrated omega-3’s and has been shown to be more effective in lowering cholesterol than the same dose of fish oil.  Since we know that cholesterol is the result of inflammation, it makes sense that krill oil may work for those in chronic pain.  I haven’t used it much in my practice yet because I’m waiting for more scientific data before making the switch.  Keep in mind that krill oil is often twice as expensive as high quality fish oil.  As long as I know krill is sustainably harvested, it might be a great new supplement to add to my practice.

Many holistic nutrition experts feel that fermented cod liver oil is the best Omega-3 oil to consume because of the fat soluble Vitamins A and D contained naturally in this oil.  The only brand available in the United States is Green Pasture, available online through several distributors.  Top nutritionists at the Weston A. Price Foundation feel that the nutritional combination of fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil helps us assimilate the minerals and vitamins better into our bodies as compared with taking other forms of Omega-3’s.  I take a teaspoon of this combination every day.

 

Multivitamin/Mineral

Whatever you do, please don’t run out to the drug store and purchase a cheap multivitamin/mineral formula.  So many drugstore brands have thick waxy coatings that your body can’t digest (containing high levels of magnesium stearate), using artificial colors and dyes to make them look palatable.  These vitamins are made from isolated pharmaceutical grade ingredients.  For specific clinical purposes I still use the purest forms of isolated vitamin or mineral formulas when necessary, but in general, I prefer whole food vitamin/mineral supplements.  As usual, I will muscle test my patients to see what their bodies are saying is best for them.

The two brands I’m currently recommending are Innate Response Formulas and Garden of Life.  Granted whole food supplements are more expensive, but the body assimilates and absorbs whole food nutrients better than isolated nutrients.  Furthermore, both products are raw as well as free of dairy, soy and gluten.  Both brands have age-specific multivitamin/mineral formulas.  I recommend that you research them and see which one you want to try.  Innate Response Formulas is available through healthcare practitioners, whereas, Garden of Life is available through health food stores and online.  Although the former is available online as well, the company does not guarantee the quality of the product if sold by discount supply houses or Amazon.

 

Vitamin D3

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is clearly deficient in most of my chronic pain patients even though it is a natural vitamin that your skin produces during sun exposure.  Eating quality animal meat will more likely give you better levels of Vitamin D because it is fat soluble, but adding fermented cod liver oil may be helpful to boost Vitamin D levels as well.

Vitamin D deficiency is the rule rather than the exception in the northern hemisphere.  My patients often forget to take it during the summer months because they are in the sun so much but when I retest them in the fall, their levels have invariably dropped.  Some experts advocate buying a tanning bed, but many people have difficulty producing Vitamin D in their skin due to age or illness.  Vitamin D deficiency can increase your risk of joint and bone problems, as well as colon, prostate and possibly breast cancer.  There are 600 receptor sites in the body for Vitamin D including the brain and the heart.  One of the reasons I recommend it for those in chronic pain is because Vitamin D deficiency contributes to chronic muscle pain. 

Vitamin D is also called cholecalciferol and is considered the more active and bioavailable form of Vitamin D to take.  The average dose required in most adults is 5000IU daily.  Most allopathic doctors will balk at how “high” that dose sounds, but if you ask for a blood test, the 25-hydroxy Vitamin D level, you want to aim for a result of 50–80ng/mL.  Levels under 30ng/mL are considered deficient, whereas levels over 100ng/mL (rare without supplementation) may be toxic.  Even with daily supplementation of Vitamin D in doses of 5000 to 10,000IU daily, your levels will not rise very quickly.  You may wish to recheck your levels every few months to make sure you’re in the healthy range.  If, however, your levels are dangerously low (below 20ng/mL), then you may want to recheck your levels within a month, just to make sure you’re absorbing the brand you’re taking. 

By the way, if your doctor insists on giving you the prescription Vitamin D (ergocalciferol) 50,000IU once a week, don’t bother.  Firstly, I had patients whose Vitamin D levels didn’t improve with this dosing so I switched them back to a natural supplement at 5000IU daily.  Secondly, I had a patient who told me that she started having stomach pain after starting the prescription Vitamin D and guessed it was something to do with the “green gel” coloring they used in the pharmaceutical.  We stopped it and her stomach pain disappeared.  Understand that in order for a pharmaceutical company to patent and thus make money off a natural substance, they must mutate it because natural supplements aren’t patentable.  When drug companies have to artificially change the structure of the Vitamin in order to sell it and make money, it makes it hard for people like me to trust how safe and effective it truly is.  I’d rather stick to the more natural forms.

  Getting enough “healthy” fat in your diet not only helps you with your Vitamin D levels, but also helps you absorb Vitamin K (from animal fat) which improves the way calcium gets integrated into stronger bones.  Vitamin Kis considered important to prevent calcium from being deposited in arteries and joints.  Vitamin K is produced in the intestines by the “good” bacteria.  One study showed that taking broad-spectrum antibiotics can severely reduce Vitamin K production in the gut by nearly 74% in people compared with those not taking these antibiotics.  Diets low in animal meat can also cause low Vitamin K levels.  One form of Vitamin K, called menaquinone-4 (MK-4), is available in animal meat.  The other is menaquinone-7 (MK-7) which is made from natto (fermented soy) can be purchased as a supplement.  People at risk of low Vitamin K should probably take a supplement in the form of MK-7 along with their Vitamin D, especially if they are vegetarian.

I use several different “doctor-only” Vitamin D brands in the office, but I suggest you start with a whole food version that is available to non-practitioners from Garden of Life called Vitamin Code Raw D.  Alternatively, I’d recommend taking Green Pasture fermented cod liver oil which includes Vitamin D as well as other nutrients that help its absorption.  In my office, I also use Pure Encapsulations and Innate Response Formulas Vitamin D. The latter includes Vitamin K as well as Vitamin D.

 

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is so important in many holistic circles that some health centers offer high dose Vitamin C by intravenous drip.  Vitamin C helps with wound healing, supports healthy detoxification, and neutralizes harmful free radicals.  Because I use the LifeWave Y-Age Glutathione patches every day, I know that my own Vitamin C gets regenerated to some extent.  Contrary to what we were taught in medical school, large doses of Vitamin C do not seem to cause kidney stones in people. 

Because it is water soluble, unlike Vitamin D, it is more beneficial to dose it several times a day rather than to take one giant dose, especially if you have a chronic illness.  Because it can cause loose stools and gas at higher doses, this may be a good reason to limit each dose to 2000mg.  Everyone’s dose is individual and in general, most patients in my practice muscle test for between 3000 and 10,000mg a day.  When someone has or is about to get a respiratory infection, we usually bump up the dose.  Interestingly, the higher dose does not contribute to loose bowel movements until the patient begins feeling better from his respiratory illness.  At that point, the patient knows to cut back on his Vitamin C dose.

There are many forms of Vitamin C including the cheaper ascorbic acid, mineral ascorbates and whole food Vitamin C.  Brands I use include MetagenicsTM Ultra Potent-C, Garden of Life® Vitamin Code RAW Vitamin C, and Emergen-Cand Country Life Acerola chewables with bioflavenoids for those who don’t mind the 3 grams of sugar.  Some are more expensive than others, but in my practice I just muscle test to see what would work best for each individual patient. 

 

Digestive Enzymes

Many of my patients who have chronic pain do not have the ability to make adequate amounts of digestive enzymes to stay healthy.  Digestive enzymes are necessary not just to digest your food in your digestive tract, but also to digest cellular debris such as decayed cells, fibrin, fatty proteins, and other unwanted materials that normally accumulate in the blood.  Debris in the blood can make the blood cells stick together.  Not only can this cause pain in some people, it can cause blood clots in others and is considered a primary cause of heart attacks due to blocked arteries. 

If you have digestive issues, it may be beneficial for you to take digestive enzymes with your meals.  I use several brands including Innate Response Formulas® Digestive Enzymes Clinical Strength, Garden of Life® RAW Enzymes, and Enzymus Medical Devigest ADS.  The latter includes high levels of specific enzymes to digest dairy and gluten but isn’t appropriate for people with low stomach acid conditions because it contains bicarbonate. 

Often as we age, our ability to make stomach acid declines.  Certain people need additional hydrochloric acid in order to digest their food and nutrients properly, especially the elderly.  Holistic nutritionists often recommend taking a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar in a glass of water and sipping the concoction over dinner.  Betaine HCL is a supplement that can also help boost stomach acid.  Unbeknownst to most people, a lack of stomach acid can manifest the same type of “acid reflux” symptoms as too much stomach acid.  In fact, the latter condition is fairly rare. 

Long term use of acid reflux medications is harmful because they prevent the proper digestion of food.  In addition there isn’t enough acid to kill unwanted parasites and bacteria found sometimes in ingested food.  If swallowing apple cider vinegar in water or taking betaine HCL produces a significant burning feeling in your stomach, you probably don’t need it.  If it has no effect, it means that you probably could use some extra acid.

In addition, taking specific enzymes between meals in order to remove debris from your blood may be extremely helpful in relieving chronic pain symptoms.  These are what we call systemic enzymes.  Adequate blood flow to your muscles and joints depends on free-flowing blood.  Enzyme blends have been shown to decrease inflammatory levels and improve muscle and joint stiffness.  Wobenzym® PS is popular among holistic physicians treating people in chronic pain.  Serracor NK and Enzymus Neprinol AFD are also helpful for patients with fibromyalgia and arthritis.  Using digital blood microscopy, researchers have documented that using systemic enzymes such as these helps to reduce the debris (dead tissue and cellular components) in the blood.  This may be the mechanism whereby they effectively decrease chronic joint and muscle pain.

 

Eating Well is Lifelong Choice

If you give your body the proper fuel so that it can function optimally, get rid of toxins and repair damaged tissue, your chronic pain may become yesterday’s news.  Eating well shouldn’t be considered a fly-by-night pursuit, however, just to get rid of pain.  When most people start making positive changes in their diet a remarkable thing happens.  They start making other positive changes in their life.  They start feeling happier and have more energy.  They make better decisions most likely because their brains are functioning better.  In a short amount of time, “bad” food choices no longer taste good to them, and in fact, they can start craving organic salads, fruits and vegetables instead of pasta, cookies, cakes and chips. 

These days, even if I happen to eat a gluten-free organic chocolate chip cookie that is fresh from the oven, I definitely don’t yearn for another because my body says “enough” because the cookie is too sweet.  Snacks I used to be addicted to often don’t appeal to me any longer because they taste unsatisfying.  I don’t overeat like I used to anymore, especially since I began juicing regularly and eating more “paleo”.  So don’t worry that you’re going to miss all your favorite foods.  A lot of my past favorite foods no longer taste good to me because my body just simply rejects them and I’m literally no longer attracted to them.  Instead I crave things like roasted organic beets, locally grown grape tomatoes, organic pea shoots or bone broth.

Unlike most of the doctors who might tell you that it is “normal” for your body to break down as you age, I’m going to tell you otherwise.  Your body will function well if you treat it well and the aging process can be reversed.  Nutrition is just one piece of the puzzle, but an important one.  Developing lifelong healthy eating habits will not only keep you healthier and happier, you’ll age gracefully and have a greater opportunity to enjoy life.  It’s well worth the effort.  Believe me.

 

Chapter Summary

         Without nutrients, the body has a hard time healing itself and malnourishment is a cause of chronic pain
         There are many nutritional myths.  Understanding the truth will result in your understanding what to eat to make up a nutrient-rich diet
         There are three pain relief nutritional guidelines outlined in this chapter.  Choose the one you want to start with and make the dietary changes you resonate with most
         Eating poorly is much more expensive in the long run than eating well
         Supplements are almost always necessary to support the body in healing itself
         Make eating well a lifelong habit and your body will respond by slowing or even reversing the aging process