16
Heal the Gut
Leaky Gut and Pain
Shortly after Christmas, I got an urgent phone call from my mother. She had only a few days before leaving on a three-week cruise with my father. She told me on the phone that she had suddenly felt a shooting pain in her buttock and leg after twisting to pick up something. It was sciatica, and she remembered my dad having something similar happen to him years ago. Nothing like this had happened to her before and she didn’t have a history of herniated discs. She was in agony, barely able to get in and out of bed. She called me to ask what she should do.
One of the things James, my partner, reminded me to ask her was how many wheat products had she eaten in the days prior to her sudden “sciatica”. Since it was the Christmas holidays, my mother’s friend had apparently baked a scrumptious coffee cake for her. My mother devoured several delicious pieces over two days. Rarely does my mother eat cake, but this was an exception. I only had a few days to get my mother functional before her trip, otherwise she would have to cancel it.
The first thing I told my mom was to abstain from eating anything made with wheat. Given that I was highly sensitive to gluten, I suspected she was as well. I asked her to sleep on the Earthing bed sheet at night with it touching her lower back and hip. I also started her on magnesium citrate (the type she could find easily at the drugstore). I taught her how to use the LifeWave Y-Age Aeon patch and IceWave pain patches on her pain, and within a few days she had remarkably recovered. She started the cruise in a wheelchair, just to be on the safe side, but not long after, she was making waves on the dance floor. Other people on the cruise couldn’t believe what a miracle “healing” my mom experienced, and some even thought she was pretending to be disabled just to get special treatment!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen patients in my office with acute low back pain whose pain symptoms were brought on by their consumption of gluten or sugar. Gluten-sensitive people, about a third of the population, have what is commonly called “leaky gut” whereby the lining of the intestines become so inflamed over years of ingesting gluten, that they literally become extra permeable. Think of the gut wall becoming like a sieve. Not a pretty picture right? Imagine partially digested liquid intestinal contents leaking out into the pelvis causing inflammation of nearby organs and structures like bones, nerves and fascia.
Many people have indigestion, bloating, diarrhea or constipation and have no idea that their condition is literally causing their chronic pain. And it’s not just low back pain. Inflammatory substances can penetrate the blood vessels and lymph and can literally inflame other organs and joints throughout the body…even the brain. Leaky Gut Syndrome is rampant and finally conventional medicine is beginning to recognize its significance in chronic immune problems.
Healing Leaky Gut Syndrome will not only help heal chronic pain, but will help heal any chronic disease you may also suffer from. Most people would agree that the immune system is pretty important, wouldn’t they? Well, did you know that over 70% of immune system cells actually reside in the intestines? In acupuncture school we were taught that “dampness” in the body predisposes people to all sorts of chronic health problems. A common symptom of dampness is nasal congestion and allergies. At first I didn’t understand how “dampness” in the abdomen could be connected to nasal symptoms, but after learning about Leaky Gut Syndrome, it all began to make sense.
Immune System & Pain
I’m now going to explain as simply as I can how your intestinal health is related to chronic pain. The immune system has checks and balances so that foreign invaders get quickly destroyed and removed, yet your own normal cells are left alone to thrive. The cells of the immune system are ever on the alert for foreign invaders. When it senses a foreign molecule (not “self”), the immune system gets into “full combat mode” to aggressively get rid of the invader. Protein molecules are pretty big so when you ingest food and fluids, the protein is broken down into smaller components. Assuming you have healthy digestive function, you shouldn’t respond to food as allergens unless you have a genetic predisposition. Foreign invaders such as parasites, viruses and bacteria are also pretty big and the immune system normally recognizes them quickly (by reading the proteins they have on their cells) and gets rid of them.
Chronic inflammation in the intestines can be caused by repeated exposure to foods such as gluten (in gluten-sensitive individuals), sugar, genetically modified foods and food additives. Antibiotics and other drugs like birth control pills can also upset the natural balance of the intestines. Antibiotics are known for destroying the population of healthy organisms found in the intestines, also called gut flora. I explain to my patients that healthy gut flora is like having a large army of soldiers protecting the gut wall, ready to destroy invaders, such as rogue bacteria, before they have a chance to do any damage. They are an important part of the immune system. Prescription and non-prescription medications, poor eating habits, and stress can wipe out this army and leave the intestinal wall susceptible to damage. As you can imagine, stress makes any unhealthy situation even worse.
Without protection, the walls of the intestines develop “leakiness”. When this happens, partially digested food and other proteins can leak into the bloodstream where they aren’t supposed to be. The interior of the body isn’t used to these proteins and immediately recognizes them as foreign invaders, mounting a full scale inflammatory immune response. Here’s the problem: some of these partially digested proteins resemble components of our own cells! Remember, these large proteins weren’t supposed to get absorbed into the body before being fully digested in the first place. The immune system then not only begins creating an immune response to the leaky gut components but also to our own tissues. In the integrative medicine world, leaky gut is considered to be a major cause of or contributor to autoimmune diseases. There isn’t a patient that I’ve treated with an autoimmune disease who does not also have some form of Leaky Gut Syndrome.
Even if you do not have a full-blown autoimmune disease like Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis or Celiac Disease, you may suffer from allergies. Chronic nasal congestion from allergies is just a symptom of the immune system working overtime against something it considers foreign to the body. A healthy gut will prevent many airborne allergens from entering the body and causing the immune system to overreact. However, in the case of Leaky Gut Syndrome, all sorts of allergens can penetrate into the interior of the body and set off a full scale allergic or autoimmune reaction. Leaky gut is likely the cause of many food allergies as well.
So how do Leaky Gut Syndrome and its sequelae cause chronic pain? As you’ve learned in earlier chapters, chronic inflammation underlies most chronic pain as well as most chronic diseases. Having your immune system work overtime against what it considers to be foreign invaders due to leaky gut causes widespread inflammation through the entire body. In the process of getting rid of foreign invaders, the immune system creates an inflammatory reaction. This inflammation is actually healthy if it is indeed fighting a true invader such as a flu virus, but it is supposed to be short-lived. Unfortunately in the case of Leaky Gut Syndrome, the inflammation continues until the gut is healed and the balance of gut flora is restored. This chronic inflammation can cause pain that you just can’t get rid of easily. Also, it is felt that this inflammation can literally damage our joints and tighten our muscles.
Four Vicious Cycles
Allergies are the first in the vicious cycles that people with leaky gut have to contend with. As I described above, the immune system just isn’t used to dealing with an onslaught of foreign proteins that normally would stay within the confines of the intestines. The second vicious cycle that is set up with Leaky Gut Syndrome is malnutrition. Elizabeth Lipski PhD, in her book Digestive Wellness describes the primary cause of mal-absorption with a leaky gut: The small intestinal villi become inflamed and thus prevent small nutrients and food molecules from being absorbed. Villi are small fingerlike projections in the small intestine. Villi have a large surface area to absorb nutrients. When they are destroyed, not only are nutrients not properly absorbed, but also the gut fluid leaks between the cells of the intestines before being processed.
Nutrients are supposed to be taken in through the intestinal cells themselves. It seems that the leakier the intestinal wall, the less nutrition is absorbed by the intestinal cells. Without proper nutrients, not only do other parts of the body have difficulty healing but so does the metabolically-demanding intestinal wall itself. A symptom of nutritional deprivation is overeating. Most of the obese people in America are malnourished. They may eat a lot, but either the quality of what they eat is poor or they just aren’t absorbing nutrients effectively.
The third vicious cycle in leaky gut is the overgrowth of “bad” bacteria, yeast, fungus and parasites in the intestines. In Digestive Wellness, Dr. Lipski discusses bacteria translocation, whereby “bad” bacteria normally associated with the intestines make their way into the bloodstream through the leaky gut and colonize other parts of the body causing inflammation and pain. Blastocystis hominis, a bacterium that causes GI problems, has been found in the synovial fluid of arthritic patients. This condition is called dysbiosis. Without the “army” of healthy gut flora protecting it, the moist warm environment of the intestines can harbor all sorts of foreign invaders that cause chronic disease.
Sometimes I can easily tell if someone has an imbalance of intestinal organisms by asking one question: “Do you have sugar cravings?” Often, if not always, my patients with uncontrollable sugar cravings have intestinal dysbiosis. The overgrowth of yeast, such as Candida, love to be fed a diet of easily digestible energy, so they’ll literally signal the body to crave sugar. My patients often feel guilty when they can’t stop eating sugar, but when I explain to them that it is the extra five to seven pounds of dysbiotic organisms living in their gut which are making them crave sugar; they have an easier time letting go of their guilt. Also, when they feel like reaching for a candy bar, they think twice about feeding the opportunistic organisms growing in their bellies.
The fourth vicious cycle of having Leaky Gut Syndrome is stress on the organs of detoxification, specifically the liver. The liver is often overworked trying to get rid of toxic molecules. In the process, the liver creates free radicals which in turn get released into the bile and this damages the gut further. When your liver is sluggish, you feel sluggish. You may also have poor skin health, chronic pain and low energy.
Do You Have Leaky Gut?
There are many risk factors for having greater intestinal permeability, i.e. leaky gut. Check the list below and see how many risk factors you may have:
You’ve taken or are currently taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin etc.
You have been on antibiotics in the past
You’ve taken or are currently taking drugs for acid reflux (GERD) such as omeprazole or ranitidine.
You’ve taken or are currently taking drugs to lower cholesterol
You’ve taken or are currently taking steroids such as prednisone
You’ve taken or are currently taking oral contraceptive pills
You eat quite a bit of grain, including wheat (gluten) and corn (genetically modified)
You are addicted to sugar or carbohydrates (not including fruits and vegetables)
You consume acidic beverages such as coffee and soda
You eat processed food on a regular basis
You have or have had lots of stress in your life
You don’t get enough sleep
You eat while driving, working or watching television
You are a vegan who eats grains, but no fish, eggs, or animal protein
There are many symptoms associated with leaky gut and the list is rather exhaustive. You can view this list online at http://www.leakygut.co.uk/symptoms.htm. Here is a partial list of symptoms:
Intestinal Symptoms:
Abdominal pain (chronic)
Abdominal Bloating
Indigestion
Excessive flatulence
Constipation (hard or infrequent stool)
Heartburn
Diarrhea
Gluten intolerance (celiac disease)
Anxiety or depression
Chronic fatigue
Seeing undigested food in your stool
Non-Intestinal Symptoms:
Insomnia
Malnutrition
Migraines
Muscle cramps
Multiple chemical sensitivities
Muscle or join pain
Myofascial pain
Mood swings
Poor immunity
Recurrent vaginal infections
Recurrent skin rashes
Brittle nails
Hair loss
Swollen lymph glands
Food allergies/sensitivities
Brain “fog”
There are a couple of different laboratory tests for Leaky Gut Syndrome that you can ask for if you really want hard proof. That being said, I don’t often order the tests for two reasons. Firstly, I can usually diagnose leaky gut through my patient’s history. The grand majority of my patients with chronic pain have some degree of gut dysfunction, so I usually just proceed with treatment. Secondly, my patients are concerned that their health insurance may or may not cover the cost of the testing. If you really want to know and if you have an open-minded gastroenterologist or family doctor in your area, you may want to ask her if she could test you. Here are two different kinds of tests you can do. Keep in mind that not all laboratories are allowed to test patients from all 52 states, so you’ll have to contact the lab to find out.
Leaky Gut Test # 1 – Intestinal Permeability Test
This is the simpler of the two lab tests. This test requires that the client consume a mixture of two sugars (Lactulose and Mannitol). A urine sample is then collected and examined to determine the sugars your gut absorbed. In a healthy gut, Mannitol is easily absorbed whereas Lactulose is only slightly absorbed. If you have leaky gut (i.e. increased intestinal permeability) the Lactulose is easily absorbed through the large leaking gap junctions of the intestinal wall and it shows up in the urine.
This test can be ordered from Genova Diagnostics : www.genovadiagnostics.com
Leaky Gut Test # 2 – Intestinal Barrier Function Test
This is the more comprehensive of the two tests. Through a saliva sample, it assesses the level of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) and the levels of free IgA and IgM (antibodies) your body is making against combined dietary proteins (wheat/gliadin, corn, soy, cow's milk, egg); aerobic bacteria (Escherichia coli and E. enterococcus); anaerobic bacteria (Bacteroides fragilis and Clostridium perfringens); Candida albicans yeast. The levels of the measured antibodies determine what stage of leaky gut development you are currently in.
I know that was a lot of big words, but basically this test checks your immune system for antibodies against dietary proteins, and can give you a feel for what foods you’re currently reacting to (thanks to your leaky gut). If you avoid the foods that are giving you trouble while you heal your gut, your path to pain relief will be much faster.
The test can be ordered at Biohealth Diagnostics: www.intestinalbarriertest.com
Strategies to Heal the Gut
Even if you don’t think you have full blown Leaky Gut Syndrome, I bet you that you have at least some degree of intestinal dysfunction. Why? Because you are in chronic pain. Remember how important brain balance and the nervous system are in the healing response? Well, the intestines happen to have their own nervous system! It is called the enteric nervous system and it houses 100 million nerves. So if the gut is out of balance, your nervous system is out of balance too. Below are the main strategies to get this “second brain” back into balance so that you can heal your chronic pain from the inside out.
Strategy 1: Brain Balance
I probably sound like a broken record, but I’m going to say it again. Make sure you are brain balanced. Without balancing your nervous system, your other efforts will be wasted. If you haven’t read the chapter on brain balancing, please do that now.
Strategy 2: Hydrate
Drink at least ½ your body weight in ounces of water throughout the day and decrease your dependency on dehydrating fluids such as caffeinated beverages. In overweight adults, that amount might be too much unless you are also taking diuretic medications or drinking caffeinated beverages. For most healthy adults, the right amount is about 2 Liters per day or about ½ a gallon. Drinking revitalized water will help the water and nutrients enter the cells and let toxins escape out of the cells.
Strategy 3: Optimize Nutrition
Eat nutritious whole foods and minimize processed foods that typically come in cans, bags, bottles, and boxes. Whole foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, local meat, fowl and eggs, fish, seafood are ideal. Grains, like wheat, have less nutritional content than other whole foods and can contribute to leaky gut, so I don’t recommend them. I know the USDA food pyramid endorses whole grains but you actually don’t need them. It has been definitively shown in anthropological fossil records that hunter-gatherer humans were taller, healthier and had perfect teeth, until the agricultural revolution began.
The Paleolithic diet is a whole food diet based on the diet of our healthier ancestors who ate lean meat, healthy oils, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. Grains, dairy and sugar are very recent additions to our original ancestral diet. According to researcher, Loren Cordain, PhD, who has spent the better part of his life researching the Paleolithic diet, the introduction of grains and dairy into our diets caused shortened stature, poorer dentition and the onset of chronic diseases in our society. You don’t have to give up grains completely, but if you do eat grains, I’d recommend sprouted organic grains. The sprouting process eliminates the “anti-nutrients” naturally found in grain and makes the grain more digestible and more nutritious for the body.
If you have a lot of abdominal symptoms, it may be prudent to go “grain-free”, not just gluten-free. You see, if the walls of the small intestine are damaged, the villi get squashed. A great visual aid is imagining your intestines going from shag carpeting to linoleum flooring. When these villi get destroyed, you then become unable to digest disaccharides. Disaccharides are sugar molecules in sets of two. Glucose is a single sugar molecule, called a monosaccharide, and is easy to digest so it does not need to be broken down any further in the intestinal villi. Many grain products, including rice, end up as disaccharides in your small intestines. For example, even though rice is gluten-free, some people can continue to have problems with their intestines when they eat it. Often these people have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like Crohns, a serious health condition that sometime requires hospitalization or surgery in its late stages.
Dairy foods such as yoghurt, cheese, milk and ice cream cause “dampness” in the intestines in many people so I would avoid these as well. Do not eat dairy if you’re constipated. Also, there is some debate over whether pasteurization and homogenization of commercial dairy products cause detrimental changes in their nutritional content.
Raw milk enthusiasts will argue that much of the Vitamin C and iodine are destroyed in the pasteurization process and that the calcium in milk becomes less soluble, leading to problems with digestion and assimilation. They also argue that fresh, raw milk from a local farm is much more healthful and does not increase the risk of food-borne infection. Although I do not eat much dairy because I have found it causes weight gain in my body, I haven’t had the benefit of raw milk. Those who I know who culture raw milk into healthy yoghurt, whey and kefir, swear by its healing properties. After seeing what raw and pasteurized milk look like under the microscope, it is clear that the two are not the “same” as government food agencies would have us assume.
Soy has been all the rage in America, especially among vegans and vegetarians. It appears in all sorts of processed foods. Unfortunately, most if not all of the soy found in America is genetically modified. GMO’s have been found to be harmful in laboratory studies and sadly, the scientists who have reported these findings have been ostracized and their reputations tarnished because of the negative impact of their findings on corporate interests. Furthermore, soy and other legumes such as beans and lentils contain anti-nutrients that make the nutrients in them less available to the human body.
I’m sure vegetarians aren’t going to be very happy with me for saying this, but I’m not a proponent of a vegetarian diet that consists mostly of grains and legumes. Vegans, who don’t eat fish, eggs or dairy, tend to have nutrient deficiencies, the most common of which is Vitamin B12, a vitamin that is plentiful in eggs, dairy and meat (including seafood). There is a misconception that in Asian countries, soy consumption is large, but the truth is that soy is consumed as a condiment and mostly in its unprocessed and fermented form. The exception would be vegetarian Buddhist monks who eat soy instead of meat thereby decreasing their testosterone levels. Because of the food processing industry, Americans consume far more soy than their Asian counterparts and this is worrisome.
You can’t go wrong by increasing your intake of whole fresh fruits and vegetables. Quick frozen vegetables can contain more vitamins than fresh vegetables that have had to travel thousands of miles before they end up in your grocery aisle. Ideally organic and/or locally grown produce is best because we don’t want to add more toxins to your body in the form of pesticides and herbicides. In Northern climates, eating fresh local produce may be challenging, but during the summer months, local farmers’ markets are the best place to get good quality food, including meat.
Eating raw foods is becoming increasing popular as a healthy way to eat. A dentist in the 1930’s, Weston A. Price, went on a journey to research what factors determined good dental health. He travelled to remote areas of the world, untouched by Western civilization and made the astonishing discovery that bad dentition is a result of nutrient deficiencies rather than a result of genetics. In the remote tribes he researched, Dr. Price analyzed the foods eaten by their society as compared to those eaten by modern American society.
He found that, in comparison to the American diet of his day, their diet provided at least four times the water-soluble vitamins, minerals including calcium, and at least ten times the fat-soluble vitamins, from animal foods such as butter, fish eggs, shellfish, organ meats, eggs and animal fats. All of the indigenous tribes he studied cooked their food, but they also ate a portion of their food raw. Seeds, grains and nuts were soaked, fermented or sprouted to remove anti-nutrients before being consumed raw. Grains that contained gluten were always soaked or fermented and often baked into sourdough breads or cooked as breakfast porridges.
The people of these indigenous cultures were the picture of health. They had wide dental arches and they were devoid of dental caries. They had fine bodies that did not suffer from the chronic diseases we suffer from in Western society. In the tribes that consumed dairy, it was always unprocessed and raw.
Raw food is not a popular prescription in Chinese medicine. It is felt in Chinese medicine that if there isn’t enough “fire” or energy in the digestive system, eating raw food would be stressful and the patient would suffer from digestive complaints like diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating. I remember my grandmother balking at the thought of eating raw salad when she first visited us in Canada during my childhood.
If you’re wondering whether eating mostly raw or cooked is best for you, I recommend that you try both and see what feels the best. If raw food like salad or fruit gives you an inordinate amount of gas, intestinal discomfort or diarrhea, then you may have to hold off on eating it, especially in the colder climates, until your digestive system becomes stronger. Alternatively, adding some digestive enzymes in the form of a supplement may be helpful. You should never see chunks of undigested food in your stool if you’re chewing properly and you are digesting properly.
Ginger is used in Chinese medicine to increase the digestive “fire” of the stomach to encourage good digestion, so if you like ginger, cook with it more often or add it to your juice if you’re juicing. In the past, I wasn’t able to tolerate salad, but lately I’ve been craving it. I’m happy to report that my intestines have healed to the point that I can now eat most raw vegetables and salads without a problem. Sushi is something that I’ve never had a problem digesting, so I often purchase low-mercury fish via mail order from Vital Choice Seafood.
Lastly, make sure you chew your food well. As a child I was an extremely slow eater, but while in medical school, I got into the bad habit of rushing through my meals. I remember wolfing down my meals in the cafeteria at the hospital so that I could answer my beeper, get to the next class or attend to my hospital rounds. I still have the bad habit of reading while I eat breakfast, but one of my daily intentions is a eating more mindfully. Recently, I’ve begun counting the number of times I’m chewing a piece of food, just for fun. Interestingly, I’ve found this practice rather enjoyable because I pay attention to the flavor and texture of my meal rather than my “to-do” list.
I had no idea that my lack of chewing over the years had contributed to my digestive problems. I used to eat a lot in the car until I heard that nutrient absorption is diminished. Of course, eating while driving is probably somewhat dangerous, but more importantly, you aren’t getting the most out of your meal. Energy flows where your attention goes so if you’re paying attention to your food as you eat, you’ll get greater benefit from it. Take it from me, chew your food well and eat slowly. The job of the teeth is to increase the surface area of the food so that the stomach and intestines can digest food more easily. According to Dr. Lipski, saliva contains enzymes that break down carbohydrates and fat. Saliva also reabsorbs nitrates from foods which then get converted to nitric oxide, a substance that helps to reduce inflammation throughout the body.
Strategy 4: Avoid GMO Foods
Genetically modified organisms (GMO) have made their way into our diets over the last ten years. Under the guise of feeding more of the world’s population, GMO foods were created so that our crops could be sprayed with pesticides without killing off the crop. BT Toxin in corn actually makes the bellies of insects explode. Ingestion of this corn by livestock has resulted in gut inflammation. Unbeknownst to most Americans, genetically modified organisms have not been studied long term (greater than 90 days) in animals until very recently.
In a study released in 2012, rats fed GMO corn for eighteen months succumbed to cancerous tumors and early death. GMO expert, Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and creator of the film, Genetic Roulette, feels that there is undeniable evidence that GMO foods are outright dangerous to humans and should be banned from the marketplace. In Europe, overwhelming consumer concern over GMO dangers resulted in Europeans rejecting it without the European government having to reject it first. With knowledge of the truth, consumers have an important role in determining what ends up on their dinner table.
As of this writing, in the United States, GMO foods still do not have to be labeled. The average American is still innocently unaware of the dangers of GMO corn, soy, canola, sugar beets and cottonseed oil in their everyday food products. However, thanks to many passionate grassroots organizations including the Institute for Responsible Technology, Just Label It, and others, we may soon see GMO foods banished from America. In the meantime, do your best to avoid all corn, soy, and canola that is not labeled organic. Even health food stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have not eliminated GMO foods from their shelves although consumer pressure may soon change this policy in the near future. It is your responsibility to be aware and informed. GMO foods can cause all sorts of allergies, gastrointestinal symptoms, unwanted weight gain, and immune problems to name a few. Avoiding GMOs can reduce or eliminate many health problems, as documented by Jeffrey Smith, including Leaky Gut Syndrome.
Strategy 5: Starve Opportunistic Infections
A common finding with most of my patient with longstanding leaky gut problems contributing to chronic pain is the harboring of parasites, yeast and “bad” bacteria in their intestines. An overgrowth of these organisms contributes to malnutrition and ongoing inflammation. They are called “opportunistic” only because they cannot survive in a healthy gut environment that has a good number of healthy bacteria (flora) protecting it. These detrimental organisms can only flourish at “opportune” times when the intestinal wall is inflamed and damaged and when there are not enough healthy flora to keep their numbers in check.
When I talk to my young patients about their tummies, I tell them that if they have too many “bad” guys living in their bellies, they will stay sick. So I encourage them to starve the bad guys and feed the good guys (the healthy bacteria). The best way to starve the opportunistic organisms is to abstain from eating damp and sugary foods. Non-beneficial yeast, mold and fungi tend to love eating damp foods such as dairy, alcohol, sugar and carbohydrates like bread. Often fermented foods made with bacteria and yeast, like kombucha, may be problematic as well in certain people. In order to starve them so they do not continue to multiply, it is important to avoid eating sugar at all costs. Of course, there are natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables that you can still eat, but avoid processed foods including fruit juices because of the high sugar content.
One of the most common ingredients in processed food is corn syrup, also known as high-fructose corn syrup. The reason it is in so many processed foods is that it is cheap to make and it is highly addictive. Try asking for a tour of a factory that makes high-fructose corn syrup. Unless you’re an industry insider, you’ll never be granted one because the process is so toxic that the companies don’t want people to actually witness how this artificial sugar is made. Furthermore, much of the corn in America is genetically modified, meaning that it contains a pesticide gene in it. If the label says “corn syrup”, you can safely assume that it is made from genetically modified corn. There are absolutely no human studies showing the safety of these genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and yet they are allowed to be sold for human consumption. Apparently the safety of Americans is not as important as corporate profits.
Not only is sugar great “food” for opportunistic organisms to thrive on and take over your intestines, its ingestion via processed food can increase the rate of aging through a process called glycation. Excessive amounts of sugar in our diet causes our cells to age through a complex series of reactions in the body that produce advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Obviously prematurely aging cells will contribute to chronic pain and will prevent your body from healing. I won’t go into the biochemical details of exactly what happens to produce AGE’s, but just know that AGE’s and the associated inflammatory reactions in the body are implicated in many chronic diseases including diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, cardiovascular disease, and cataracts.
Back in the 1700 and 1800’s America’s sugar consumption was around 4 pounds per person per year. Guess what it is today? It is over 130 pounds per person per year and it keeps rising each year according to the USDA! Most people have no idea that the soda that they are drinking or that the non-fat gluten-free cookies they are consuming might have massive amounts of sugar in them. Processed food labeled “sugar free” isn’t a whole lot better because they are still devoid of nutrients that are found in whole organic food plus they may contain potentially toxic artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.
Going “cold turkey” on processed food may be difficult for a lot of people. Even I like to enjoy crackers from time to time, although I try to buy gluten-free crackers made from flax seed rather than sugary grains. Just make small consistent changes in your diet over time. You don’t have to incorporate all of my suggestions all at once. Just pick the most detrimental nutritional habit you may have and start changing that a little at a time. After your body has “withdrawn” from “bad” food and you start feeding it nutritiously dense whole food, you’ll find you don’t miss processed food at all. It is the first couple of weeks that are the most challenging. For example, if you’re a diet soda junky, consider switching to soda with natural sugar (not high fructose corn syrup) first. Then you can start to decrease how much you drink and replace it with something fun and yummy like carbonated water with lime and stevia.
Eventually you can increase your non-carbonated water intake and increase your natural water intake. You may even wish to invest in a good quality juicer to make your own delicious and healthy juices from organic produce. I absolutely love my masticating juicer because it juices the fruits and vegetables relatively slowly (five minutes versus five seconds for centrifugal high speed juicers) and the juice keeps fresh for 72 hours. I find that adding freshly made juice to my diet has made me less hungry and more energetic. It is probably due to the high concentration of minerals in the juice. If the body receives and can absorb more nutrients, it becomes less hungry. That’s what I’ve found in practice.
Strategy 6: Promote Healthy Intestinal Flora
While you’re starving the “bad” intestinal organisms in your gut, you’ll want to replace them with “good” organisms: beneficial bacteria or yeast. Healthy flora, as they are also referred to, help destroy unhealthy organisms, thus reducing their negative impact on the intestines. While many people argue that they get probiotics by eating yoghurt on a daily basis, in practice, this is often not enough. In addition, most commercial yoghurts are fat free and thus devoid of Vitamin A. They are also laden with sugar and artificial flavors or sweeteners, so they are not the healthiest of choices. As mentioned before, the “dampness” in the intestines can be worsened by pasteurized dairy products. The average yoghurt contains between one and four billion CFU’s (colony forming units) of probiotics per serving. Yet, in most of my patients with leaky gut and chronic pain, they require upwards of 20 to 120 billion CFU’s of probiotics per day to restore intestinal balance.
Instead of store-bought yoghurt, I often prescribe probiotic supplements. Probiotics contain beneficial bacteria or yeast that can re-colonize the intestines and help repair leaky gut. Certain folks have access to raw cultured dairy products which they can try instead since the culturing process uses probiotics. Raw dairy is difficult to come by unless you happen to live in a state or country where it is legal to sell it in stores. Some people choose to make their own raw cultured kefir or whey. In Chinese medicine, patients are asked to avoid dairy because it can often worsen joint and muscle pain. If you’re a dairy fan, you’ll just have to try live without it for a month and see if you notice a difference.
As far as taking probiotic supplements, there are many different brands available and some are better than others. What you’re looking for is a brand that contains human strains of healthy organisms or have been validated in clinical studies using real people. In the office I use muscle testing as a simple tool to help determine which probiotic brand would be most beneficial for each patient. After several months to a year, I repeat the muscle test in case the body wants a different combination of probiotics. Some quality brands I’ve used in my office which are also available at health food stores or online include Culturelle, RAW Probiotics by Garden of Life, Prescript Assist, and Ethical NutrientsTM Intestinal Care DF (Dairy Free). In the office, I also use GenestraTM HMF Replete and Integrative TherapeuticsTM Enterogenic Intensive100 (100 billion per capsule). Available in pharmacies only is a brand called VSL#3 which contains over 112 billion CFU’s per capsule, which is approved to treat inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis as well as irritable bowel syndrome.
I recommend that you abstain from eating sugary foods in general, but especially while you’re trying to rebalance the organisms in your intestines. If you continue to eat sugary foods while you use probiotics, you will both be feeding and killing off the “bad” organisms at the same time. This is not ideal because you can suffer from what is referred to as a die-off reaction. For example, if you’ve been eating ice cream every evening and feeding the “bad” yeast in your intestines and then proceed to kill them off with probiotics, you’ll be left with a large amount of dead yeast remnants in your bowels, which could lead to all sorts of symptoms. Die-off symptoms could include lethargy, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, irritability, skin rashes, low grade fever and worsening of joint and muscle pain. It may be prudent to start with a lower dose of probiotics and work your way up to the higher doses over time while you continue to refine and improve your diet.
Strategy 7: Treat Constipation
If you have constipation, I can guarantee that it is contributing to your chronic pain. When your colon is backed up, it cannot process all the toxins flooding into it, so the toxins overwhelm other detoxification organs such as the liver and kidneys. The colon usually is responsible for dealing with the bulk of toxins that we are in contact with daily, so if it isn’t working properly, the liver can become sluggish in its function. A sluggish liver is often the cause of chronic pain. When the bowels and liver aren’t functioning optimally, you can bet that the other detoxification organs are also stressed: the lymph and kidneys. When the toxins cannot be removed effectively from the lymph into the kidneys for excretion, they can hang around the body’s tissues and cause muscle and joint pain. The skin, which is one of the largest detoxification organs we have, uses sweat to detoxify us. But if the skin exhibits rashes and diseases, it means that the colon, liver, kidneys, and lymph have all become overwhelmed and the body has no choice but to try to detoxify through the skin.
I know from personal experience that constipation causes joint and body aches. Whenever I would become constipated, which was a common occurrence until I desensitized myself from my food intolerances, my muscle trigger points would start to ache and my joints would stiffen. When my bowels improved, my pain levels dropped almost immediately.
So what is considered constipation? Well, the ideal number of bowel movements you should have daily is between three and four. The first bowel movement is in the morning before breakfast and the rest is within an hour of eating a meal. For most people, they are shocked to hear this. Personally, I’m happy if I “go” once a day given my long history of constipation. If you do not have a bowel movement at least once a day, then you’re in big trouble. Not only is your detoxification system backed up, you can’t heal your body if you’re constipated. Clearing constipation is vital.
Your bowel movements should be relatively soft, easy to pass and formed, like a snake. This is a type IV stool according to the Bristol University’s Stool Scale. If you can pass 12 inches or more of stool in one sitting, that is superb and ideal. If you have small “rabbit pellets”, Type I stool, you are severely constipated and need treatment for constipation. If you don’t have constipation but have diarrhea instead, Type V to VII stool) you’re not out of the woods either. Diarrhea is NEVER normal and you may have chronic leaky gut or nutritional malabsorption issues.
Here are some guidelines to treating constipation:
1. Make sure you’re hydrating with approximately half your body weight in ounces of pure water daily
2. Eat vegetables at every meal, raw if tolerated
3. Eat enough healthy fats and oils which include pastured butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and grass-fed animal fat
4. Take a good quality probiotics daily
5. Avoid eating sugar, dairy and gluten
6. Avoid caffeinated drinks as they contribute to dehydration
7. Take extra magnesium (see Magnesium Miracle chapter).
8. If the above fail, use a simple, magnesium-based bowel cleansing kit such as Enzymatic Therapy’s Simple Cleanse or Whole Body Cleanse. Although it isn’t the strongest cleanse on the market, it is safe for most people and non-habit forming for long term use.
9. Test for food intolerance and do the Uhe Method to desensitize yourself from these intolerances.
If constipation persists despite your best efforts, it may mean that you have a low or underactive thyroid condition. I find hypothyroidism very common in women, especially after the age of forty. However men can become hypothyroid as well. If you have some or most of the hypothyroid symptoms below, you may wish to get tested for it.
Fatigue
Sluggishness
Increased sensitivity to cold
Constipation
Pale, dry skin
A puffy face
Hoarse voice
An elevated blood cholesterol level
Unexplained weight gain
Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness
Pain, stiffness or swelling in your joints
Muscle weakness
Heavier than normal menstrual periods
Brittle fingernails and hair
Depression
The laboratory tests I usually ask for are: Free T4, Free T3 (active form of thyroid) and TSH. I look to see if the Free T4 and T3 are in the upper normal range and if the TSH is in the low normal range, all of which are desirable. If your lab results are “normal” yet you display symptoms of low thyroid, you may wish to check if you’re iodine deficient. According to Dr. David Brownstein, an expert in the holistic treatment of thyroid disorders, approximately 96% of his patients are iodine deficient. Those with thyroid disorders almost always are low in iodine. A simple 24-hour iodine loading test can be done (as long as you don’t mind collecting your urine for 24 hours) to determine whether you are deficient or not. It only costs about $50 US, not including the iodine tablet you have to take, and your insurance may even cover it. I use Doctors Data, the only laboratory that is permitted to do testing in my state of New York. Dr. Brownstein uses Hakala Labs.
Sometimes when the thyroid lab tests are in the normal range, my patients are still experiencing hypothyroidism. Even if their thyroid production is adequate, their tissues can be less sensitive to it. Alternatively, the hypothalamus gland, one of the master glands of the brain, can be weak or unbalanced, thus affecting thyroid function.
Strategy 8: Desensitize Food Intolerances
Please read the chapter on Food Sensitivities. It is ideal to both recognize and avoid the foods that cause sensitivity reactions in your body as well as desensitize yourself from them. Sensitivity reactions cause chronic inflammation in the body, which contributes to chronic pain. Avoiding the foods that cause this inflammation will help your intestines heal. By desensitizing your body as well, using NAET or the Uhe Method, you’ll turn down the excessive inflammatory reaction that occurs, so you’ll minimize or eliminate your symptoms.
Strategy 9: Support Your Detoxification Organs
Once your colon is working better, the other detoxification organs can then be relieved of the extra burden they’ve been carrying. If you’re no longer constipated but you feel that the detoxification organs need some support after years or decades of stress, you may wish to try the LifeWave Y-Age Glutathione and Carnosine patches on specific acupuncture points that support those organs. The LifeWave patches have been proven in clinical studies to improve organ function.
I have found that the liver is usually extremely stressed in most of my patients and that can contribute to chronic pain. As long as someone is not constipated, I like to recommend the LifeWave Y-Age Glutathione patches on the right Liver 3 acupuncture point, which is on top of the foot. Glutathione is a very powerful antioxidant molecule that the body makes to help detoxify itself. Glutathione recharges other antioxidants such as Vitamins A, C, and E, so that is why it is referred to as the “master” antioxidant of the body. Unfortunately as we age, our ability to make glutathione diminishes. That’s where the LifeWave Y-Age Glutathione patches come in. When placed on acupuncture points, the patch stimulates the body to produce more glutathione. Unlike medicinal patches, there is no glutathione actually inside the patches. They work instead by signaling the body’s own glutathione production mechanism. How elegant is that? Because glutathione is used up quickly in the body, I recommend using the Y-Age Glutathione patches daily if tolerated. It is the most efficient, least expensive way to increase your glutathione levels compared with using supplements, creams or intravenous injections.
The LifeWave Y-Age Carnosine patches help to repair connective tissue and cellular DNA. Carnosine is an antioxidant. In mouse studies, carnosine supplementation improved longevity by 30%. If you have chronic pain, you likely have tissue that need repairing so I recommend these patches for long term use to support the body’s self-healing mechanism. Like glutathione, carnosine production declines with age. By normalizing carnosine production in the body, the cells have the opportunity to return to a more youthful state. Placing the carnosine patch on any of the acupuncture points listed in the LifeWave brochure or handbook is effective in supporting the organs of detoxification. Some people even put the carnosine patch over areas of chronic degeneration to diminish pain. I recommend using the carnosine patches every night while you sleep because that is the time that your body regenerates itself. They last twelve hours so you can put them on sometime after dinner and wear them overnight.
In many of my patients with chronic pain, I’ve found a set of acupuncture points on their upper chest that can become really sensitive. These points are Kidney 27, on either side of the breast bone, up near where it connects to the collar bone. If these points are sore, it invariably means that their lymphatic flow is blocked and the toxins cannot escape through the urine. If toxins can’t flow easily from the lymph, they will settle in your muscles and bones and cause chronic pain. The body has to detoxify these toxins in order for your chronic pain to disappear for good. If you push on the Kidney 27 points on your own chest and they are sore, it probably means you also have blocked lymphatic flow contributing to your chronic pain. Rubbing these points several times a day may help open up the flow of lymph.
A licensed massage therapist specializing in lymphatic drainage would also be able to help you unblock the lymph. My lymphatic specialist would usually take upwards of 30 or 40 minutes to unblock my lymph channels, especially if I was suffering from constipation. One day, she decided to experiment with putting LifeWave Energy Enhancer patches on Kidney 27, the white patch on the right and the tan patch on the left. To her amazement, the lymph channel opened up within five minutes. From that point forward, I’ve recommended that patients with tender Kidney 27 points patch themselves daily on this specific acupuncture point with LifeWave Energy Enhancer Patches until which time the points are no longer sore. I have found that not only do people experience more energy, they also have diminished all-over body pain as well.
One of my patients, Steven, had extremely tender Kidney 27 points. He shot me a look of anguish when I pressed on them! After I instructed him to use LifeWave Energy Enhancer patches on this point, he lost eight pounds within 24 hours! Steven was “water-logged” with sluggish lymph containing toxins that could not escape the body until we treated those points. I can tell you he has felt a whole lot better since and those acupuncture points aren’t very sore any more.
There are some supplements that help the body’s detoxification organs function better. Some of the best ones I’ve used were created by doctors for doctors and are thus not available for the general public, so I won’t name them here. Milk thistle is well known for supporting the liver. Usually if I use it, my patients muscle test for between 200 and 500 mg per day in divided doses. It is very safe, so I don’t hesitate to recommend it. L-Glutamine in doses around 3000 mg a day or more has been used successfully to heal the lining of the intestines. If you’re really interested in taking supplements, it would be a good idea to connect with a holistic physician, herbalist, holistic nutritionist, or naturopath who is comfortable at evaluating you for supplements. I muscle test each patient who might benefit from taking supplements because I have found muscle testing to be the most useful way to evaluate their appropriateness.
Pain Relief with Gut Healing
At this point you might be wondering how quickly you’re going to see results in pain relief once you decide to start healing your intestines. I have to admit that the gut doesn’t heal overnight, so you’ll have to be patient and persistent. Understand, however, that by doing what it takes to heal the intestines, you’ll be doing your entire body a favor, not just your muscles and joints! Your skin will be clearer and younger. Your mind will be brighter, happier and more focused. You’ll likely enjoy your life more because you feel so much better.
For many people, just getting rid of chronic constipation relieves a large proportion of their chronic pain. If they have blocked lymphatic flow due to a sluggish set of detoxification organs, unblocking this flow helps tremendously in getting rid of chronic achy joint and muscle pain.
If you prefer a step-by-step eating guide to cure Leaky Gut, check out the radio interview I did with Leaky Gut expert Karen Brimeyer about her program.
Chapter Summary
Chronic pain can be caused by a condition known as Leaky Gut Syndrome
Healing Leaky Gut can restore the body’s ability to heal from chronic inflammation and allergic reactions
The gut is a second “nervous system” and if it is out of balance, so is your nervous system, which can keep you in pain.
Strategies to heal the gut and reduce chronic pain include brain balancing, hydration, optimizing nutrition, starving opportunistic infections, promoting healthy intestinal flora, reducing food sensitivities and/or their reactions, eliminating constipation and supporting the detoxification organs.
Blocked lymphatic flow can cause achy chronic joint and muscle pain. By checking acupuncture point Kidney 27 for tenderness and then treating it with acupressure or LifeWave Energy Enhancer patches, you can help to encourage the free flow of lymph.