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Fibromyalgia Monthly Newsletter
Fibromyalgia Newsletter – June 2006
Brought to you by: Jane Oelke, N.D., Ph.D.
DoctorOelke@aol.com
Fibromyalgia and “Leaky Gut”
With my new testing device I am seeing many people with food triggers that are causing their chronic health challenges. Fibromyalgia pain often has a relationship with poor food digestion, caused by chronic food sensitivities. The health of our whole system can be affected by the foods we eat and how they are digested.
Our digestive process begins in our mouth. When we chew food, we begin to break it down and digest it using the enzymes in the saliva. When the food gets to the stomach it needs to be broken down even more. The stomach needs to secrete hydrochloric acid to get stomach enzymes activated. This can take up to 30 minutes to occur. When this process takes too long, indigestion happens. When heartburn occurs, it is actually due to the lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which causes the food to ferment, building up gas in the stomach, and producing pressure in the chest area. Only by getting the stomach to secrete its hydrochloric acid and enzymes effectively, will food be broken down. Taking antacids to slow or stop the secretion of hydrochloric acid inhibits the ability of the stomach to digest food properly. Antacids may help to prevent heartburn in the upper digestive tract from the mouth to the stomach, yet cause more problems in the lower digestive tract with undigested food.
When undigested food gets into the small intestine, it causes mucus to build up in the attempt to protect the lining of the intestinal wall. This mucus forms to counteract the bacteria created as the food ferments. In the small and large intestine there is supposed to be a high level of good bacteria. But with fermenting food, more toxic bacteria are created. The toxic bacteria overpower the good bacteria whenever there is undigested food in the intestinal tract. The toxic bacteria flourish when food sits too long and begins to putrefy or rot. If the undigested food is not removed quickly through the colon, toxic chemicals, called indicans, will form, and cause irritation to the lining of the digestive tract. As this irritation gets worse, the toxic chemicals are “leaked” through the intestine into the circulatory and lymph system. This condition is called “leaky gut syndrome”, and has been linked to fibromyalgia as one of the associated syndromes. Actually, leaky gut syndrome is often the cause of many chronic disease patterns. You can prevent or reverse these disease patterns by making sure you digest food in the stomach effectively, and have enough good bacteria in the small intestine and colon for food to get broken down completely.
The gradual accumulation of toxic chemicals in the soft tissues is one cause of pain, especially in areas where we tend to hold stress, such as the neck, shoulders, and lower back. Any place where toxins build up in the tissues, the blood becomes thicker, slowing down circulation, and slowing down healing. Tender points can also develop due to conditions caused by a lack of oxygen getting into and being used by the cells. Insufficient oxygen in any cell of the body interferes with the healing process. The accumulation of toxic chemicals, lack of circulation, and the lack of oxygen, all lead to sluggishness in the lymph system. When the lymph fluid becomes stagnant, it causes the lymph nodes to swell and become sore. The pain in the tender points relate to this buildup of toxic lymph tissue in these areas. A natural consequence of too little oxygen is the build-up of lactic acid, causing soreness in these hypersensitive areas of tender points.
If you get tired after meals, you can check for toxic bacteria in the intestine by changing your diet. For three days eat nothing with sugar, including no fruit, no juice, no soft drinks, and no refined carbohydrates like bread or pasta. During the three days you can eat vegetables, plain yogurt, brown rice, water, and soy products. Notice if you feel better by looking at the change in your symptoms and energy level. If you feel better, it is demonstrating that fermenting food inside your digestive system is producing toxic bacteria. These toxins are affecting the creation of your energy. There are a number of enzymes that are used to make energy that can become deactivated by these toxins, and therefore result in fatigue. Other circumstances that can deactivate these enzymes, in addition to sugar, include yeast imbalances in the small intestine, and environmental heavy metal toxicity, such as mercury and lead, and carbon monoxide pollution.
Are You Absorbing Nutrients Well?
A report in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year showed that in over 35 thousand women taking a calcium supplement for 7 years, found that there was only a slight increase in bone density, but no reduction in bone fractures. And, in a Harvard study of over 75 thousand women who drank 2 glasses of milk for 12 years, they found that they actually had a greater risk of hip fracture than those who drank little or no milk. So how are we supposed to get the calcium we need for our bones?
Osteoporosis is very low in Asian countries and they do not drink milk. They only get about 400 to 500 milligrams of calcium in their daily diet. What really helps with osteoporosis prevention is your acid/alkaline balance. When we eat too many acid-forming foods it affects our metabolism and how well we absorb nutrients from foods or supplements. A low pH reading from eating too many acid-forming foods is the cause number one cause of osteoporosis. In America most of our packaged or processed foods are all acid forming.
You can take the best supplements in the world, but if your pH levels are too acid or too alkaline you will not absorb the nutrients. Low pH readings relate to too much acid in your system, which causes immune system stress. Taking regular pH readings until they are in balance can make a huge difference how well you absorb nutrients.
High pH readings create an alkaline environment, and are not good either. Too high pH readings create a toxic environment where the metabolism moves too slowly. Taking too many supplements in an alkaline environment increases the level of toxins that stay in the body.
Maintaining a balanced pH is very important in reducing “leaky gut” syndrome, and improving your metabolism. Urine pH should be more acid in the morning – between 6.0 and 6.4 with the first morning’s urine. During the day your urine pH can be a little higher.
Your saliva pH is an indication of how well your liver is metabolizing toxins. The best pH reading, taken an hour after eating, should be between 6.4 and 6.8. If it is over 7.2, then it is too high, or too alkaline, and can cause toxins to stay in your system.
If you do not have a Food Acid/Alkaline Chart, I would suggest putting one on your refrigerator. Ideally we should eat 75% alkaline foods, and 25% acid foods per day. It will help you create better food choices when you have the information you need at your fingertips. Go to my fibromyalgia website at www.naturalchoicesforfibromyalgia.com and look under the diet section for the Food Acid/Alkaline Chart.
The Patterns of Stress Kits (also available on my website) are designed to help you balance your pH readings when diet is causing your imbalances. I recommend that you test your saliva and urine pH regularly until they come into balance. “Leaky gut syndrome” can be improved much more quickly when your pH readings are in balance.
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