Mar 29, 2022 | Knowledge Base
IBS? IBD? Autoimmune issue? Any of those means your small intestine (not just your colon) is damaged and needs some TLC to heal.
If you eat commercially produced foods the chances are you’re eating polysorbate-80. This industrial emulsifier is a common food additive. It’s even used in laboratory animals to produce inflammatory bowel disease. And yet the food industry claims it’s safe for human consumption. But surprise, surprise it’s highly linked with inflammatory bowel disease in humans.
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Mar 22, 2022 | Knowledge Base
Vitamin D is a critical vitamin. It’s made in your skin by the action of sunlight on cholesterol.
You are at risk of suboptimal levels if you
Take cholesterol-lowering medications, steroids, laxatives, or certain other meds
Are overweight
Wear sunblock
Don’t regularly get 15 minutes of bright sunlight on your bare skin
Have an impaired vitamin D receptor gene (yes you can do genetic tests for this)
Symptoms can include bone or joint pain, muscle cramps, mood changes, tiredness, being prone to colds/infections, low bone density, psoriasis, digestive troubles, and many cancers.
Your GP can do this simple test for you but make sure you get the result. The “reference range” (what is considered to be normal) is based on what was advised 25 years ago. When I was training in nutritional therapy in the early 90’s we were taught that a minuscule amount of vitamin D was enough. Newer research shows this is far from the truth.
To discuss your vitamin D result with me book your free quarter our discovery call now.
Book your FREE quarter-hour discovery call by phoning + 353 87 981666 NOW or emailing anna@annacollins.ie
Mar 15, 2022 | Knowledge Base
Did you know that chronic stress breaks down the lining of your gut? We’re all designed to withstand short-term stress. A near-miss on the motorway, a challenging meeting, running late. Stress hormones rapidly rise but should normalize quickly after the incident. When your stress hormones are consistently too high that’s when problems start. Your body diverts its energy away from healing, repair, digestion, and immunity. It doesn’t matter if it’s your in-laws winding you up, a never-ending-seeming to-do list, or a real physical emergency. Your body doesn’t distinguish. Non-emergency functions take a back seat.
I know this from personal experience. In 2004 my lovely father had a catastrophic stroke. I was distressed for a very long time. Watching both him and my mother suffer horribly wrenched my heart every day. After 3 months I got a viral infection and spent 8 years ill. I was weakened by my lifestyle and way of thinking before the virus came along. If I were strong, I would have bounced back.
Knowing these 3 things could change your life:
Your food choices affect your stress levels
Certain products rob nutrients needed for resilience
Despite what’s going on in your life you can become more resilient to stress
Book your FREE quarter-hour discovery call by phoning + 353 87 981666 NOW or emailing anna@annacollins.ie
Mar 8, 2022 | Knowledge Base
Carrageenan is a thickener used in many ready-made and free-from foods to improve the texture and stop things like yoghurts and plant milks from separating.
A long-standing puzzle is why this “harmless” emulsifier is used to induce gut inflammation in experimental medical research, yet it is also approved as a food additive. Associate professor of Clinical Medicine Joanne Tobacman from the University of Illinois has reviewed the data on this ingredient. Although in experimental research the degraded carrageenan used to produce inflammation was different from the undegraded carrageenan used in foods, there was in fact a marginal to non-existent distinction between types of carrageenan. Her conclusion was that this common additive causes colon inflammation. It causes inflammatory substances to invade your protective gut lining, causing ulcerations and evidence of colitis.
There is evidence to show that our increasing intakes of dietary emulsifiers like carrageenan are partly responsible for the explosion of inflammatory bowel disease. IBD has been steadily increasing in the late 20th century and has doubled worldwide since 2000.
Dr. Tabacman and her team went on to trial a no-carrageenan diet for people in remission from inflammatory bowel disease. They put all patients on a carrageenan-free diet. One group a capsule containing less than an average daily exposure amount of carrageenan. The other group got a placebo capsule with no carrageenan. The results were striking. Half the carrageenan capsule patients relapsed. None of the 100% carrageenan-free group did. Information kindly provided by Dr. Ben Brown writing in IHCAN.
What else might you be eating that’s keeping you ill?
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Mar 1, 2022 | Knowledge Base
Toxic or “heavy” metals include mercury, lead, arsenic, and a few more. Many studies link high levels of heavy metals with autoimmune diseases, especially autoimmune thyroid conditions. 90% of people with hypothyroidism have autoimmune hypothyroidism. Standard medical tests miss this or get a false negative.
One study even found that women with high mercury exposure were more than twice as likely to have the antibodies found in Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease. And unfortunately, these chemicals are a lot more common in our environment than most people realise. Mercury can be found in many things dental fillings and fish to vaccines to cosmetics. It can also be in the air as emission from coal-burning plants.
Lead can be found in old paints as well as old water pipes and cheap imported consumer goods. If you cycle on the roads a lot, you might be inhaling lead particles from road paint! The US FDA found traces of lead in over 400 lipsticks in 2012!
Arsenic accumulates in rice if the soil contains arsenic. It can also be in the water.
If you are short of nutrients because of digestive issues or a non-great diet of toxic metals your body will take up heavy metals more readily. This produces more toxic effects.
Book your FREE quarter-hour discovery call by phoning + 353 87 981666 NOW or emailing anna@annacollins.ie
