Insulin Resistance

When we think of insulin, we think of diabetes. Insulin is needed Metabolic Syndrome (also known as MetSyn or Syndrome X) is the polite name given to the signs of an over-indulgent lifestyle. These cluster of signs include:

• High blood pressure            

• Low HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol)

• High triglycerides & LDL cholesterol (the not-so-good cholesterol)

• High blood glucose

• Overweight or obese

MetSyn is basically the precursor to our most common chronic diseases: diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Unless you’re having yearly blood tests, it may be tricky to catch yourself sliding into the MetSyn category… although, having said that, being overweight is a giveaway. You definitely can’t miss the physical symptoms that accompany MetSyn: fatigue, depression, constant hunger, erectile dysfunction, chronic inflammation, extra abdominal fat.

The classic indicator is, indeed, the beer belly. A simple way to check your likelihood of developing Metabolic Syndrome is to check your waist measurement:

Women: >80 cm high risk

Men: > 94cm high risk

The causes of Metabolic Syndrome are primarily related to a lifestyle of over-consumption. A high-carbohydrate, high-calorie diet; sedentary lifestyle and the constant bombardment of stress are all factors known to contribute to the development of Metabolic Syndrome. However, it is Insulin Resistance that is the driver of Metabolic Syndrome. Insulin is released in response to any sugar or carbohydrate in our food (think: bread, cereal, pasta, biscuits, crackers, chips, etc.) Insulin’s job is to move sugar from the blood stream into the cells where it can be burnt for fuel. The more carbs we eat, the more insulin is released. We humans, though, are simply not designed for this continual influx of carbohydrate. In fact, insulin, in an evolutionary sense, helped the body store fat from a short-lived carbohydrate feast, to be used in times of famine. After a time of continued carb-rich eating, our cells no longer respond to the presence of insulin. We are officially Insulin Resistant.

So, what’s the big deal? Insulin level stays high- this literally primes the body to store fat- regardless of what we may eat. We are all likely to know (or be) an overweight person who actually eats very little. This is Insulin Resistance, right there.

Treating Metabolic Syndrome necessarily revolves around dietary change. All dietary carbs must be avoided. Meals should be based on protein (meats, eggs, fish, chicken), vegetables and good fats (raw olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, butter). Exercise, too, is paramount in resensitising the cells to insulin. Herbal medicines, such as Cinnamon, Coleus, Gymnema and Panax Ginseng can greatly improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control, as do the nutrients chromium, magnesium and zinc.

Headaches and Migraines

Do you suffer from headaches? If so, consider how often, how bad and when do they arise? Millions of us get headaches often enough to be annoying; but some of us are unlucky enough to get headaches that are so debilitating that we are resigned to spending up to 3 or more days in a dark, quite room, totally unable to participate in our regular life.

Think of a headache or migraine as one of your body’s warning systems- pain just doesn’t manifest for NOTHING; something is out of balance & warrants your attention.

There are many reasons why headaches may occur:

• Hormonal fluctuations- women often get migraines around ovulation or just before their period. This is often due to an oestrogen overload and / or a sluggish liver that is unable to properly metabolise excess hormones. Extra magnesium, B vitamins, and eating plenty of vegies from the brassica family (broccoli, kale, cabbage, etc.) can help.

• Dehydration- any slight drop in cellular hydration can trigger a headache. Drinking 1 litre of water at the first sign of migraine can halt it in its tracks.

• Over-acidic body chemistry- indulging in rich foods and sugar creates a very acidic state that wreaks havoc on cellular functions. A dull, lingering headache can often indicate that your cells are bathed in too much acid. LOTS of water, plus alkalising greens and cell salts (particularly Nat Phos) can rectify this.

• Blood sugar issues: having either too high or too low a blood sugar level may trigger headaches. Balancing blood sugars means eating adequate protein & good fats with each meal, as well as avoiding all refined foods & sugar.

• Liver issues: the liver meridian opens into the eye. Headaches that lodge behind the eyes or coincide with bloodshot eyes suggest that the liver needs some attention. Here, herbal medicines such as Bupleurum, Dandelion & Schisandra work beautifully.

• Food sensitivities: foods such as red wine, chocolate, bananas, MSG, caffeine and amines (found in high amounts in aged cheeses and leftover foods) are notorious migraine triggers for many people.

• Stress: excessive worry about anything causes a constriction of the tiny blood vessels in the brain, leading to headache & migraine. Stress reduction techniques, such as mindfulness meditation, yoga and calm music can all be valid ways to prevent headache.

• Electro-magnetic radiation (EMR): many of us are sensitive to EMR, so take note of where you are & what electronic gadgets may be nearby when a headache strikes.

Hashimotos

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (Hashi’s) is the most common type of auto-immune thyroid disease, whereby the immune system starts attacking the thyroid gland. Hashi’s is no fun- symptoms involves anything from fatigue to brain fog, hair falling out, intolerance to cold, weight gain & fertility problems and, as with any auto-immune disease, it is life-long. In Australia, it now affects 12% of the population, mostly women. 12 % is a significant figure; you’d think with this many people affected that we’d have a good understanding of causes and treatments…we don’t. For most patients, it’s simply blamed on their genes, and they are given a script for thyroxine (thyroid hormone), and reminders for a routine blood test to keep a check on levels.

The problem with this approach is that it solves nothing. It may treat some of the symptoms, but it certainly doesn’t look to the root cause of the disease. Indeed, many patients notice no difference whatsoever to their overall health when they start taking thyroxine. Hmmm… Perhaps we could consider another approach.

The big(gest) players in autoimmune thyroid disease

• Leaky Gut: The gut is king when it comes to autoimmune disease. We’ve got to get this right before the immune system can reset itself. Our modern diet seriously compromises the integrity of the gut lining. Gluten, in particular, is known to weaken the tight junctions in the intestinal wall, allowing food particles, microbes & toxins to escape into the surrounding tissue. The immune system then recognises these as foreign pathogens, triggering an inflammatory response. This inflammation eventually leads to immune cells attacking the body’s own tissues.  

• Stress. This is another major trigger of inflammation throughout the body. As too many people experience, this day-in, day-out stress creates chronic inflammation in the body, again eventually resulting in autoimmune disease.

The road to healing

There are absolutely steps you can take to begin healing your thyroid, in addition to taking medication. And it all starts, as you’d know by now, in the gut. There are many different autoimmune diet protocols around, most of them with a similar theme. Generally, this involves a Paleo-style diet that eliminates all grains, dairy, sugar & processed foods. This can be further individualised through allergy testing to determine what foods might be triggering an inflammatory response in any individual patient. I usually recommend a good gut-repair powder for a few months, containing such ingredients as zinc, glutamine, mastic gum, guar gum, licorice & turmeric, which will help heal those tight junctions in the gut. Re-inoculating the bowel with good bacteria from specific strains of probiotics is also important here, as is eating prebiotic-rich foods to nourish the immune-modulating bacteria that we want plenty of in our gut. These are predominantly plant-based, and include onion, Jerusalem artichoke, legumes, starch from cooled potato & green banana, beetroot and fermented vegetables.

It goes without saying that any regular stress-reduction technique resonating with you is vital to reduce that inflammatory load. My favourites (and, yes, I do a bit of each) include meditation, sound healing, exercise, yoga, visualisation and time in nature.

Good Mood Food

We are allowed to have an off day where we feel a bit grumpy, flat or irritable. To experience the full range of emotions is to be human, and we all must learn to sit with uncomfortable feelings at different points in our life. However, depression and anxiety have tripled in the last ten years, which suggests that black moods frequently overwhelm many of us.

The link between nutrition and mental wellness, and the gut- brain connection, is absolutely clear: we must eat well in order to feel well. The gut is, essentially, our most primitive brain. So, when we say we have a gut feeling about something, it is actually quite accurate. The zillions of microbes that colonise our gut (our microbiome) can have either a profoundly positive of negative impact on our mental health. A diet high in sugar & other processed rubbish changes the microbiome, which then affects how our brain functions. An altered microbiome results not only in more anxiety & depression, but also more complex issues like Autism and Schizophrenia.

The following good mood guidelines can very powerfully lead to positive mood changes:

• Fat, Fat, Fat: our brain is composed primarily of fat, especially of the creamy, saturated kind. This means we absolutely need to eat saturated fats- butter, egg yolk, the natural marbled fat in meats, and coconut oil. The omega-3 fats found in oily fish, chia, flax and walnuts are also beautiful for our brains. The fats to avoid are the vegetable oils like soy, corn and canola.

• Greens: Raw leafy green vegetables like baby spinach are rich in folate, which is vital for mental health. More and more people are discovering they have problems with their methylation cycle (an important pathway for neurotransmitter production). High doses of natural folate, and NOT the popular folic acid supplements we buy, can help this.  

• Protein: beef, lamb, fish, chicken and eggs supply the brain with all the building blocks needed or healthy neurotransmitter production. Vegetarians must ensure they eat good amounts of legumes and nuts & seeds in order to access this good protein. In practice, I see many vegetarians who really struggle to maintain a healthy mood- not just because of the protein, but also because of the zinc, iron and Vitamin B12, which is so easily found in animal sources.

• NO processed foods: these are like poison to the brain. If your Grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, then you probably shouldn’t eat it! There is NO place for artificial colours and flavours, preservatives, artificial sweeteners or any ingredient that needs a number to identify it in a good mood diet.

• Avoid stimulants: coffee, sugar, cigarettes, alcohol, even cocaine, makes your anxiety or depression temporarily better. However, their effect rapidly wears off and leaves you feeling worse than before. Their harmful effect on mental wellness is well studied.

Food Sensitivity

There is a lot of confusion out there about food sensitivities. Is it an intolerance? Allergy? Or something else? Allergies are easy to identify- they involve an immune reaction to a food. An intolerance, on the other hand, has no immune component; rather, it occurs when certain natural food chemicals or additives irritate certain nerve endings which then triggers symptoms in different parts of the body. This depends on where your sensitivities lie, and will vary from person to person. The commonest places for food sensitivities to show up are:

• SKIN- hives, rashes, eczema, itchiness, nappy rash

• GUT- loose stools, cramps, bloating, colic

• RESPIRATORY- sneezing, hay fever symptoms, asthma

• NERVOUS SYSTEM- aggravation of ADHD behaviour, headaches, insomnia, irritability, restlessness

What are you sensitive to?

Again, this can vary between individuals. Food intolerances run in families, and will often result in the same sensitivities and symptoms through generations. Natural food chemicals include:

• Salicylates: these are a family of plant chemicals found in many fruits & vegetables. In nature, these protect the fruit / vegetable from insect or pest attack. The highest concentration of salicylates is found just under the skin, so often peeling the food helps reduce levels. High-salicylate foods include grapes, berries, apricot, pineapple, tomato, capsicum, olives, nuts, honey, coconut, apple cider vinegar, tea, coffee & wine. They are also found in essential oils (lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree) and aspirin. Salicylate-sensitivity frequently shows up as skin reactions.

• Amines: these come from the breakdown of proteins and are found in any aged foods- leftovers, aged cheeses & tinned foods. High amounts are also found in nut spreads, chocolate, fruit juice, sauces, vegemite, and fermented foods such as beer, wine & vinegars. Amine levels are increased with ripening (ripe banana, avocado, tomato, etc.) Headaches, gut issues & body pain are often linked to amine sensitivity.

• Glutamates: this amino acid enhances the taste of foods. Glutamate-rich foods (cheese, soy sauce, stock cubes) and pure mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) are often added to meals to bring out the flavour. Sensitivity often shows up as behavioural issues such as ADHD & insomnia.

Sensitivity Threshold

How sensitive you are determines how much of these food chemicals you can tolerate. One or two strawberries may be fine, but eating the whole punnet brings out a rash. Amines and salicylates can build up in your body over time, so often symptoms can be hard to trace back to a particular food. The only reliable way of discovering which food chemicals may be triggering your symptoms is to ELIMINATE all possible trigger substances at the same time, wait a good 4-6 weeks for symptoms to subside, and then reintroduce them one-by-one.

Fasting

Fasting has been used as a healing practice for thousands of years. Hippocrates, Aristotle, Socrates & Plato all praised the benefits of fasting, and our Grandmothers encouraged us to starve a fever, feed a cold. Essentially, fasting, means abstaining from food. It can be a multiday fast, or it can be skipping a meal a couple of times a week. It can also include fasting on juices, raw foods, rice or broth. There is well-documented evidence that short term fasting conveys a number of health benefits: fat loss; reductions in inflammation, diabetes, ageing, cancer & heart disease; and improved cell longevity.

From an evolutionary perspective, the idea of 3 meals a day for our hunter-gatherer ancestors was unheard of. Food was never in such an abundant supply; humans would feast when it was plentiful, perhaps once a day, and fast the remainder of the time. Consequently, this selected the genes that stored fat, which was vital during times of fasting.  Translate this to now, and the genes that promote fat storage are still working perfectly- only now we have three meals a day plus countless snacks to go with it. The end result is, of course, a huge rise in obesity.

Most of us eat too much, too often. We are stuck in a cycle of relying on sugars from carbohydrates as being the primary fuel source for our body, so we crave sugar every time our stores run low, usually every couple of hours. We need to switch to an alternative fuel source: FAT. Once we start burning fat for fuel, food cravings and hunger disappear, blood sugar levels stabilise, and energy levels are high. Fasting is an excellent way to get the body into fat-burning mode.

The main drawback for most people is that it is perceived as being tedious and difficult. However, it doesn’t have to be! Many people would be familiar with the Intermittent Fasting 5:2 diet (eat freely for 5 days, fast for 2) which has been well publicised & researched. I also suggest a version of this, whereby you simply reduce the window during which you eat; for example, between 9 am – 7 pm, providing a 14 hour fast each day, or from 10am- 6pm, giving a 16 hour fast each day. You need to find what works for you- if you’re naturally not hungry in the morning, then skipping breakfast is fine. Or perhaps it’s better for you to cease your day’s eating by 5 pm, and increase the time you’re fasting overnight.

Regardless of what type of fasting works for you, it is still important to choose the right foods when you do eat. Plenty of good fats from butter, avocado, egg yolk, olive & coconut oil, macadamias & seeds; regular protein from fish & meats; and loads of fresh, multi-coloured vegetables are key. 

Bone Broth

If you had to choose a food that was richest in healing minerals, you couldn’t go past bone broths. These are extraordinarily rich in minerals and amino acids that offer some important health benefits. In traditional meat-eating societies importance was given to eating the whole animal, and the bones were especially revered for their health-giving properties. Most of us would remember a Granny or mother making us chicken soup when we were sick, and for good reason.

Bone broth (or stock as it sometimes called) is simply made from water, seasonings, vegetables and bones with or without meat on them, beautifully

simple to prepare and very inexpensive.

The healing benefits of bone broth are numerous, with particular emphasis on gut health, joints & bones, skin and the immune system. Bone broth contains minerals in a highly bioavailable form (i.e. in a form the body can absorb easily)— calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons- just the stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, which are often sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

Bone broth has a powerfully healing effect on the gut. With our modern diets tending to be high in sugar & carbohydrates and low in healthy fat and minerals, the inner lining of the intestinal tract becomes inflamed and leaky. This predisposes us to all manner of illnesses, including IBS, allergies, autism, depression & migraines. Bone broth is a fundamental principle of the GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) by Natasha Campbell-McBride, which aims to heal and seal the gut as the primary treatment for all these disorders.

BONE BROTH RECIPE

This is borrowed from the wonderful book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. There isn’t a wrong way to make the broth- the bones, meats & vegetables can be varied.

1. Fill up a large soup pot with pure, filtered water.

2. Add 2 tbspns vinegar, plus 2 chopped carrots, 1 chopped onion and 3 stalks celery. (The vinegar is important to draw the minerals out of the bone)

3. Place a whole chicken into the pot; bring to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let simmer.

4. The meat should start separating from the bone after about 1.5 hours. Simply remove the chicken from the pot and separate the meat from the bones. This meat is soft and yummy; perfect to add to salads, sandwiches etc. Place the carcass back into the pot and continue simmering the bones for as long as possible (ideally another 12-24 hours)

5. Add some fresh parsley about 10 minutes before finishing the broth; this will add further healthy minerals to your broth.

6. Remove remaining bones from the broth with a slotted spoon and strain the rest through a strainer to remove any bone fragments.

Looking After Yourself

One of the biggest issues we have to address when it comes to improving our health is actually making space to take care of ourselves. Real care that is ongoing, not a fleeting 48 hours of eating right and going for a run, then falling back to old habits. We women are the worst, prioritising everything else in their life except themselves. 

The woman who feeds her family and forgets to feed herself, the woman who goes to a drive-through for lunch at 3.30pm whilst dropping the kids off to sport, the woman who has 6 coffees a day without thinking, the woman who pours herself half a bottle of wine each evening just so she can hold it together through dinnertime.  

The body is our greatest barometer; it lets us know when something is awry way before our mind recognises it. Fatigue, anxiety, low libido, IBS, feeling frumpy… these are all ways the body has to let us know all is not well.  

Start Close In. It’s the little things count.  

1. Eat real food. At least 2-3 times a day. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just honest. When you’re serving dinner, put another serve straight into a lunchbox for tomorrow.  

• Eggs (keep a few hard boiled ones in the fridge for a quick breakfast or snack) 

• Vegetables- the pre-chopped salad mixes are great. So are avocados, left-over roast veggies, celery sticks, baby cucumbers… 

• Good fat- this keeps your hormones happy & your skin (& other important bits) moist. Raw olive oil drizzled on meals, butter (yep), avocado, macadamias, sardines 

• Eat some carbs. Women on low-carb diets feel great for the first couple of weeks, then rapidly fall in a heap. The right carbs are gentle & nourishing, especially at dinner time: white potato (Yes!), brown rice, quinoa, spelt pasta. 

2. Drink water. 2 litres of it every day. The single easiest step you can take to get your cells healthy. 

3. Move your body. Do what you love (dance, run, yoga, squash). Or, if you don’t love anything, just walk. Preferably with a friend. I wish I’d never gone for that walk, said no one. Ever.   

4. Meditate. Make 10 minutes in your day to simply be still with yourself. The more we gently guide our minds into quiet places, the easier it is to find peace. There are some beautiful apps around that guide you if you prefer; I like Insight Timer & Smiling Minds, but there are plenty of others 

The Healing Power of Nature

Recently I’ve found myself going back to the real basics of Naturopathic medicine. The principles First, Do No Harm and The Healing Power of Nature have been incredibly important and have stood me (and those patients I’ve work with) in good stead.

In a month of complex cases, patients have presented with myriad symptoms that seem to have little common thread. The lady with fatigue, fluid retention, headaches and random rashes appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Her blood results are perfect. Or the man with horrible gut pain, headaches and attacks of vomiting whose scans are all clear and nothing shows up in his blood tests either. It is situations like these that often prompt people to show up to a Naturopath in the first place, when their GP doesn’t have any obvious answers for them.

I don’t mind, in fact I love that I can be the one to de-complicate things for them and, instead, guide them to understand what their body may be trying to tell them.

First, Do No Harm. Aside from the obvious, this principle really means that illness has a purpose, the symptoms of which are the body trying to heal itself. Therefore, we do not want to suppress the symptoms without removing the underlying cause(s).

The Healing Power of Nature. Each body has a profound ability to heal itself. Our job is to simply create the right environment for it to do so. This means:

1. Removing obstacles that get in the way of healing:

• Poor diet: refined/processed foods devoid of any nutritional value, sugar, deep fried foods, lack of fruit and vegetables

• High-burden substances: alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, food colourings and preservatives

• Lack of water

• Toxins: Our world is full of them (PCBs, exhaust fumes, xeno-oestrogens, pesticides, etc.) but we can certainly minimise them through wise choices around cleaning products, make up, organic veggies

1. Supplying lots of the stuff it needs:

• An abundance of richly coloured vegetables and fruits

• Good quality proteins

• Plenty of water

In an ever-more-complicated world, it’s a relief to keep it simple. For both these patients, where the underlying cause was just not obvious, all we did was to RESET the body. A couple of weeks just eating veggies and meat and fish and eggs and drinking loads of water. No sugar, no grains, no alcohol no coffee. They felt pretty ghastly for the first few days, but then it’s as if a light turned on. The body, having been unburdened of all that stuff that was getting in its way, and given the right environment in which it can do what it’s designed to do, starts the process of healing.

Rocket science? – No.

A little bit magic? – Maybe.