Raynaud’s: Natural Solutions

Raynaud’s.  What the heck is that?!  Well, you either clicked to read this article because you have the diagnosis, or you related to the picture, which essentially tells you what Raynaud’s is, visually.  In a nutshell, it’s the lack of blood flowing to the finger tip(s), most commonly.  There can be other areas involved, too, like toes or the tip of your nose;  however, most people who experience the garden-variety version have it happen to a finger tip or two.  When something happens to cause the vessels to the finger tips to constrict, they spasm and don’t open back up as quickly as they should.  That is why you will see white tips when the rest of the finger is red.  The cold is the most common reason for this to happen, but it could also be due to stress.  When the finger tips lose blood flow, they become numb, and the person can’t feel things with those fingers that they would normally.  Typically, it returns to normal in a short time, but it can be rather annoying.

What’s a person to do about this?!

The key to dealing with Raynaud’s is addressing the cause: lack of blood flow.  Sometimes, this can be a side effect of a more serious condition, such as an autoimmune disease (especially scleroderma), medication use impacting blood flow, or certain thyroid conditions.  However, most of the time the key is addressing the spasm of the arterioles.

Here are some easy tips to address to problem: 

  1. Wear warm gloves when in cold temps.  Duh.
  2. Exercise regularly.  Exercise forces blood to pump and keeps your arteries responsive.
  3.  Stop smoking.  It’s well-known that nicotine damages vessels, which is why smokers don’t heal from injury or surgery as well as non-smokers.  It’s all about blood flow to tissue when we are talking about healing.
  4. Address medication use.  Finding and correcting the need for certain medications that impact blood flow, like beta-blockers and even OTC meds for sinusitis!  The reason they stick chemicals in meds for sinusitis is to reduce the blow flow in order to decrease pressure.  Makes sense, right?  But the pressure is not the cause of sinus issues.  Many times, the best option is to address the reason someone is experiencing allergies, stop the release of histamine, or correct the underlying issues impacting recurrent infections.  That could mean taking a different approach to the nutrients you take for these issues.  I digress.
  5. Consider supplements that increase blood flow and oxygen while you are addressing lifestyle factors.  Nutrients such as niacin have been used for a very long time to increase blood flow, and if you have ever used it, you know there’s something called “niacin flush.”  You could also consider nutrients that increase nitric oxide, like l-arginine.  Often times, people with Raynaud’s have low nitric oxide levels.
  6. . Get massages and adjustments regularly.  Adjustments will make sure your nervous system is functioning in tip-top shape, and massages will enhance blood flow to all the areas of your body. I personally think a monthly adjustment and massage is what works best for me!
  7.  Use saunas.  Heat increases blood flow!  It’s not rocket science.  Use saunas regularly throughout the winter to enhance blood flow to tissues. In the winter, I will use a sauna a couple times a week, but I would do it more frequently if my schedule permits!

While many people experience this issue, traditional medicine approaches aren’t that successful.  Try these simple lifestyle changes to address Raynaud’s or heck, just move to the sunny states!  You have to admit, it’s not a bad idea.

 


Homemade Chicken Stock for the Lazy Folks

Homemade month is moving along and next on the list is chicken stock.  I think this may be one of the easiest things you can do in your kitchen because it requires nothing but a crockpot and a chicken.  The picture is from a frozen chicken in the crockpot with veggie scraps from trimming them at other meals.  I believe I have onion tops, shallot tops, carrot ends, celery ends, etc.  I start a bag that goes in the freezer and accumulate scraps for the moment when I want to make a stock.  This is exactly what I did:  I put a frozen chicken in the crockpot with a little salt and cracked peppercorns and obviously veggie trimmings.  Cover for 10 hours (if thawed, 8 hours), and set crockpot on low.  Around 6 hours or so all the juices will begin to accumulate at the bottom of the crockpot.  After your 10 hours are up, remove the meat off the bone and put the carcass back into the crockpot.  Fill the crockpot with filtered water and let simmer for another 4 hours.  Strain your stock into containers!  That’s it.  I didn’t measure exactly but I want to say that it produced 10-12 cups of stock for me.  Typically, the ones you buy in the store come in 4 cup cartons.  So, that means I made the equivalent of 3 cartons of chicken stock with leftover bones from cooking a chicken.  I was already cooking the chicken and using the meat for tacos.  Therefore, it’s hard to estimate a cost savings when you are simply using leftover parts!  The cartons I buy of organic chicken stock at the store at $3-$4 bucks.  The entire chicken cost me $12 through Honored Praire.  For $12 bucks, I got about 3 lbs of meat and 3 cartons of chicken stock.  Not too shabby.  I put the stock that I will use that week in the fridge and the rest in the freezer.  I use the stock for everything from soups to simmering veggies.  It is packed full of minerals and healthy collagen for the joints.

Here’s my opinion on the whole homemade chicken stock ordeal: (1-5 with 5 being the best)

Ease: 5 (you put a chicken in pot and leave it for heaven’s sake!)

Price: 5 (I would have spent the same amount of money for 3-4 cartons of chicken stock at the store without the meat!)

Worth the touble: 5 (I am set now for weeks)

Taste: 5 (Way better tasting and way more nutritious than its processed counterparts!)


Patient Journey: Crohn’s

Despite working with patients for several years now and wanting to share everything I possibly can to make a difference, I have never taken the time to share any stories of patient journeys.  I have never pressured any patients to write testimonials and, quite frankly, I feel like sometimes they can be a little inauthentic.  If you think about it, who is going to agree to write a testimonial and say anything bad?!  However, I have sent my patients a journey worksheet to help me decide what was the most influential, what they believed to be the most impactful moments along the way, and what they would say to those that may be on the same path.  I have used these journey worksheets to help mold my treatment methods, but I feel guilty for not sharing them!  I’m ready.  I hope to share some patient journeys over the next few months so you can understand what healthy looks like through the eyes of patients like yourself.

First up? a Crohn’s patient that will actually be a case study published in my upcoming book on treating immune dysfunction! It’s interesting for me to see how patients perceive our work together, and as you will see, food was a huge part of this autoimmune journey!  I will let you know the question and response, unedited, completely honest and raw…..

  1. What health issues were you struggling with when you began to work with Dr. Angela? I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease about 5 years ago. I struggled finding the “safe” foods to eat without knowing what was really in food and how it was prepared. So honestly I would usually eat once maybe twice a day because it was just easier than getting sick…I lost about 40lbs within the first 6 months (only weighed 140lbs at lowest weight, so pretty low for a 6’ tall male). I also became very sheltered and was afraid to go out to eat, go to movies or just basically afraid to leave my comfort area “in case I got sick”
  2. What treatment methods had you tried prior to Dr. Angela’s program? The doctor had me taking 3 – 3mg Budesonide (equivalent to Entocort) each morning and then taking 2 Pentasa four times a day…so taking 11 pills a day. Basically tried to stay away from food the doctor told me to avoid. Also took a food allergy test which was 100% waste of my time after spending one short visit with Dr A
  3. What health benefits did you gain from working with Dr. Angela? Where do I start…I can eat without being too worried about getting sick, I can leave the house more often because now I know what I eat and where it came from and I am slowly gaining my weight back. I just finally feel better, but I still have my days but overall I feel better and I am currently taking 3 prescribed pills a day along with my other healthy pills.
  1. What was your biggest struggle during the transition to a healthier lifestyle? The first two weeks were the worst EVER!! I was basically having chicken broth for breakfast, lunch and dinner to clear my system of anything that was bad…it was 100% worth it and yes I would do it again it I had to. Another struggle is making breakfast, lunch and dinner is a chore on some days but when I get to sit down and eat and know that I will feel full and probably not get sick is a great feeling. It’s either all or nothing when choosing this lifestyle so get ready for the ups and downs but once you find some go to meals its fun and worth every penny you are paying.
  2. What did you find most beneficial to you in the program? That I am getting my life back, that I can feed my family good food and stay away from all the processed food. Becoming a better cook is also the fun part because I can cook more meals than I ever thought I could. Also I can eat dessert again and that is always great because Dr A has some amazing recipe’s for any sweet tooth out there.
  3. Did your food options taste good? Sometime they taste too good, like the almond butter chocolate chip cookies are the best thing ever. Its also amazing what you can do with honey, I never liked honey before meeting Dr A but I basically put it in/on everything…and not the fake honey you get in the store, it has to be the real stuff.
  4. Did you have an ah-ha moment that helped you commit to the change? If so, what was it? My moment was when Dr A had us take everything out of the pantry/house that had corn in it and I realized just how much crap we were eating and if I got rid of it. Also was when we learned how some of the cooking oils were made/processed…GROSS!!
  5. If you were going to give a piece of advice to someone on the fence of following a program like Dr. Angela’s, what would you say to them in order to help them decide? Give it time, it is worth it. There will be days that you’re not going to want to get out of bed to make another meal or make another trip to stupid fancy grocery store but I promise you that it does get better, there will be tears and there will be family fights because of what you can and can’t eat but hang in there, my wife also followed along by my side and after all the fights and tears shared we are both better and healthier. When you are addicted to anything, bad food in our case, it tough quitting that habit and you’ll have ups and downs but now we have a lot more ups then downs and love almost every step we are taking….it’s not easy but if I can do it know that anyone can.

Dr. Angela’s perspective:

This patient had evidence of intestinal permeability, some underlying infections that needed addressed, excessive stress in certain areas of life, and a list of about 50 foods that “he wasn’t supposed to eat.”  Thank goodness for that list of foods, because his wife contacted me (after hearing from one of you about me) at a complete loss as to how to cook for him with such restrictions.  This is often how it starts.  I get contacted with an intention, and after a short consult, we have a completely different direction that focuses are correcting the underlying cause of disease.  This patient has since removed all his meds and had a COMPLETELY CLEAR colonoscopy.  Every patient has a different journey, but especially with autoimmunity, I insist on the education component because the children of that patient inherent the DNA.  While DNA doesn’t cause the disease, it sets the stage for it.  So, the process he mentions about removing corn was a random idea I came up to get the kids involved in understanding just how many foods may contain things that make dad (and many others) sick.  Like I said, no two patients are the same, and therefore, I don’t think I’ve ever done exactly the same thing with any of them.  You are unique, your body is unique, your lifestyle is unique, and the things that matter to you are unique.  That means you need a plan that fits your unique circumstances.

 


Autoimmunity and Exercise (Part VII)

At this point in the autoimmune series, you can understand why I was reluctant to write an article in the first place! It is so complex, complicated, and multifaceted. So, if I were going to touch on another lifestyle change someone can easily implement, it would be exercise. Unfortunately, exercise is one category where you can have too much of a good thing, especially if you suffer from autoimmunity. There is a point where movement is healthy, beneficial, and will IMPROVE your immune system. On the flip side, if someone’s system is under extreme demand, their adrenals are shot, and they are often stressed, you can easily overdo it. Then the question becomes, what types of exercise are best, and how much.
Exercise is very closely related to your adrenals and the production of cortisol. Cortisol is a steroidal hormone that helps you keep up with stress and is important in the fight or flight response. These spikes in cortisol production should be short-lived and not chronic by any means. However, many of us live stressful, hectic lives and some add tons of exercise on top of it. This is a recipe for adrenal fatigue, and if you want to read more on that, click here.  The more intense you exercise, the more cortisol you release.  This disrupts something we call the HPA axis, which is important in regulating hormones and the immune system.   The types of exercise that stimulate the HPA Axis disruption the most are chronic cardio and and high intensity exercise.  That means that if you have an autoimmune disease, you may be doing more damage than good if you try to run marathons (or any long distance) or Crossfit.  It doesn’t mean you can’t participate in these workouts, but it does mean you need to be smart about it!  Resistance training does not have the same effect on cortisol if it is practiced alone.  This means that weight lifting or body weight movements at lower intensities may be a great option for those with autoimmunity or adrenal fatigue! If you decide to participate in physical activity that is too strenuous for your body to keep up with the cortisol production, guess what, you can CAUSE LEAKY GUT.  We talked about how leaky gut is how this whole thing got started in the first place!  It’s a classic case of too much of a good thing.  Balance is key and more doesn’t always mean better.

As far as how exercise affects the immune system, it can cause a huge inflammatory response.  Any exercise someone does at more intensity that usual for longer than usual, is mobilizing neutrophils and natural killer cells.  This type of exercise also stimulates phagocytosis and increases the production of inflammatory compounds.  In studies, we see that following acute exercise,  the number of T and B cells (immune cells) drop below the levels they were BEFORE every working out.  This quickly recovers if someone has adequate recovery time.  However, if there isn’t sufficient days between these types of workouts, then it is common for athletes to get sick!

Now we understand that we may need to back off the intensity, how often should we be working out if we have an autoimmune condition?  I like to say High Intensity work should not be done more than 2 times a week.  That would include intervals, Crossfit, intense cardio.  You should leave at least 2 days between those sessions for proper cellular repair and recovery.  In between, yoga, walking, leisurely biking are all amazing, repairing options.  You can also add some resistance training  like weight lifting or body weight movements like squats, push ups, pull ups, etc to the mix.  The key here is to keep your heart rate down when you are avoiding high intensity.  This may mean doing less initially which seems counter-intuitive because we all want to look good naked. However, chronic cardio and too much high intensity activity are driving your adrenals into the ground.  Once that happens, your body will begin taking building blocks from hormone production in order to try to keep up with cortisol production.  It doesn’t care how fertile you are, heavy your periods are, or how horny you are if it is trying to survive a flight or flight experience! As far as our genetics are concerned, stressful situations are life and death.  That is why de-stressing is so important.

If you have cut out gluten, upped your fat soluble vitamins, addressed you stomach acid, and quit taking miscellaneous medications, this could be your next step in the equation.  Exercise should be a positive challenge to the body.  If overdone, it most definitely acts in the opposite direction.  Choose something FUN.  I like group classes because community makes every second fun for me.  I really enjoy sports. Join a sports club.  Take family walks.  Movement does not have to be a dreaded to-do on the endless list.  It should and could be something you ENJOY and LOOK FORWARD TO!  If you haven’t found that type of movement yet, then keep searching.  Different strokes for different folks.  The more you can do outside, the better, too.


Medications and Autoimmune Healing (Part VI)

Before we get started, let me say that I am not rendering advice on what to do with your medications in this article!  I am simply going to explore how some common medications may be obstacles in your healing process.  If you have followed this journey, we started with how an autoimmune disease happens, touched on the involvement of heartburn, gluten, nutrient deficiency, and discussed how leaky gut is involved.  Most of the medications I talk about, I will place in the category of things you can control.   That means I will not be talking about immunosuppressants or other common autoimmune meds; I will be talking about drugs like: antacids, antibiotics, birth control, steroids, and pain relievers. Let’s get started with heartburn meds because we talking about heartburn and stomach acid one of the first articles.

PPIs (aka Nexium or Prevacid) and H2 blockers (aka Pepcid and Zantac):

If you would like a reminder of how important stomach acid production is, feel free to re-read the heartburn article.  If we consider that any disease healing process requires adequate nutrients, we also must consider if we are able to get those nutrients based on the health and performance of our digestive system.  Stomach acid is a major component for the beginning of our digestion and without adequate amounts, we develop issues such as GERD, heartburn, H. pylori, and intestinal dysbiosis.  If you are taking a stomach acid reducer, you are hindering the first step in food breakdown.  This sets you up for impaired digestion, decreased nutrient absorption, possible infection, and leaky gut.  That’s a very basic understanding.  If we get more technical, PPIs have been shown to interfere with antigen presentation mechanisms by affecting lysosomes.  They also obstruct the work of cytotoxic C cells. These are IMPORTANT for immune function, so you can imagine if you have created the perfect environment for leaky gut, which can trigger an autoimmune disease, then impaired digestion setting you up for infection which can trigger an autoimmune disease, then took a medication for the heartburn that interferes with appropriate immune system functions…insert cry emoji here.

Birth Control Pills

I have spoken before in brief posts about hormone health and how taking the pill to correct hormone imbalance may be doing more harm than good.  I have also been vocal about the pill and it’s ability to significantly increase clotting risks in women that can result in strokes or pulmonary embolisms!  This is not a medication to be taken lightly, and from first-hand experience, I know these risks are not brought up.  I was speaking to a nurse the other day about how interesting pregnancy can be in autoimmune conditions and how that speaks to hormone involvement.  I have had autoimmune patients tell me their autoimmune condition completely goes into remission while they are pregnant, and they wish they could trick their body into believing it’s pregnant all the time!  Sex hormones play a role in immune system function, so the decision to artificially alter them, may be causing an immune system issue.  In addition to directly changing hormones, they cause disturbance in the gut flora resulting in dysbiosis and many times leaky gut.  Remember leaky gut being how autoimmune issues start?!

Antibiotics

Antibiotics save lives.  Period.  However, they are way over-prescribed and many people take them multiple times a year.  If you are doing everything right, it can still takes months for the assault of antibiotics on your gut flora to fulling repair.  If we KNOW that the bacteria in your gut account for the majority of your immune system, then how could you not be worried to take a medication that would wipe them all out?!  Antibiotics are often broad spectrum and will have no issues wiping things clean, good and bad.  Imagine having to rebuild your house every time it got messy.  That is the task you ask of your body when you take antibiotics for every sniffle, sneeze and infection.  It is often common for antibiotics to be prescribed without a culture which means your infection could be viral.  Viral infections are not killed by antibiotics.  Antibiotics kill bacteria.  Oops.  In a nutshell, antibiotic need may be more scarce than you think, it has a dramatic effect on the bacteria balance in your intestines, and they should be avoided if possible.

NSAIDS (aspirin, advil, aleve)

These anti-inflammatory drugs are non-steroidal but they are used widely to control pain and inflammation.  So widely, that you probably have bottles in your purse, your bathroom, your desk drawer, etc.  I can say that I don’t even have a single bottle of these around and if I needed one on some off chance, I would have to go purchase them.  Most people know the dangers of taking too much because your doctor will warn you about how bad it damages your gut, which can result in ulcers.  I hope this connection is screaming at you before I tell you….wait for it….if they damage the gut, and your gut houses your immune system, then it can’t be good for conditions concerning the immune system! A SINGLE DOSE OF NSAIDs damages the intestine of even a healthy person.  It does this by inhibiting an enzyme called cyclooxygenase which is essential for maintaining the gut mucosal barrier. They also inhibit the formation of the proteins that keep tight junctions together (remember that cell lining gate being damaged).  These drugs are popped like candy because most people see them as harmless when you can buy them in the store.

Well, those are the major ones I wanted to hit because so many people are unaware of the negative side effects.  If these are part of your “health” routine, you may be causing more damage than good.  If you have an autoimmune disease, these may be a part of your routine that you can control.  There are tons of natural compounds that fight infection and decrease inflammation.  These can be found widely in foods and many supplements now exist.  Try cooking with turmeric, adding garlic to everything, using onions abundantly, and fresh herbs are crazy good in the medicinal department.  Funny how all this complex material always lands us back at basic lifestyle changes.  Nature is so smart.

 


How does an Autoimmune Disease Actually Happen?

Without the audience having an in depth knowledge of the body, this can be a confusing process to explain.  However, I’m going to put on my teacher hat and try my best to explain how your body could ever be so confused that it begins to attack it’s own tissues resulting in diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohn’s, Psoriasis, Hashimoto’s, etc.  Even though these diseases are present in different systems within the body, the same mechanism of trigger initiates the cascade.  Every autoimmune disease is an IMMUNE SYSTEM disorder.  However, most people focus on the system involved by taking thyroid medication for Hashimoto’s, creams for psoriasis, digestive aids for Crohn’s, and the list goes on.  Most of the heavy duty medications on the market for these problems are immunosuppressants.  That means their entire job is to dampen the ability of the immune system to function in hopes it will quit attacking itself.  This has a nasty side effect of also leaving patients vulnerable to sickness because their immune system is being shut down (hence the fine print in commercials saying not to take them if you are sick, in contact with the sick, etc.)  Many patients will say “Isn’t there a way to help this WITHOUT shutting down my immune system?!”  The answer is “absolutely,” but you will not find those methods in medication.  I hope now you are asking “HOW?!”  Let’s look at how it happens to try to address that question later…

Proteins: Proteins are the building blocks of life.  They are made up of things called amino acids and we use about 20 different amino acids to build every single kind of protein that we need.  Based on how you put the amino acids in sequence, you can create different kinds of proteins.  These creations make up the cells of your organs, your hormones, and the antibodies we call immunoglobins.  You may have heard of some of these amino acids without even knowing it!  We have all heard of tryptophan around Thanksgiving because people blame the sleepiness on it’s presence in turkey.  Maybe you’ve heard of Glutamine if you are in the fitness industry.  Perhaps phenylalanine has popped up as you search the risks of artificial sweeteners?  These amino acids are essentially the legos that make up parts of your structure.

Well, these proteins tend to have a lot of similarities to the proteins in other life forms such as animals, plants, and even viruses.  For heaven’s sake, we have 67% DNA similarity to an earth worm!  Like I’ve said before, this is why biological principles are important to know; we all exist under the same fundamentals!  Small sections of these proteins are recognized by antibodies.  This is the recognition system for our immune system to be able to ID, tag, and get rid of foreign invaders by recognizing specific amino acid sequences present on the protein structure.  When the antibody binds to one protein, it’s common that it will also attach to other proteins containing a similar sequence. This is a good thing if those other proteins are also foreign invaders, but it’s a bad thing if the other protein happens to be our own tissue.

Don’t worry though, we have a quality control system.  Because of so much shared DNA sequencing, this happens all the time!  It happens in everyone really.  However, we have a process called “selection,” that allows T and B cells to recognize self and they are destroyed.  This is all happening in the bone marrow and the thymus gland (hence T and B cells, haha…ok, not funny).   It can also happen via suppression where certain T cells shut down autoantibody production from any cells that may have escaped the first check.  In a healthy individual, this system of checks and balances works beautifully!  However, for those with autoimmune conditions, the body has a breakdown in the second process and simply can’t keep up with the quality control process of destruction.  Let’s just say your employee came in drunk and is no longer paying attention to the bad specimens rolling through!   So, it’s not really a problem with the body making antibodies against itself, because everyone does that.  It’s more about a faulty system in the ability to keep them at a minimum.

Once this breakdown occurs, it’s much easier for the body to then create another autoantibody to a different tissue, which is why so many autoimmune patients can then get another autoimmune disease fairly easily.  When enough damage has occurred to the tissue being targeted, you will start to express systems of the disease.  This is when you show up at the doctor with digestive distress due to Crohn’s, or unbearable joint pain due to Rheumatoid, or heaven forbid the neurologic symptoms of MS.  Here is where the fork in the road happens.  How do you treat it?  You can take medication to address the symptoms presenting, you can take an immunosuppressant to try and shut down your body’s ability to produce antibodies (to itself or to foreign invaders), or you can eliminate the triggers that cause the immune system to attack in the first place.

The environmental triggers for immune system attack can include anything from vitamin D deficiency, bacterial infections, silicone implants, chemical exposures, and yes, intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut).  Even though genes may create the perfect recipe for an autoimmune disease, the environmental triggers are really what start the cascade of events.  This is the reason why many people will say that genes load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger.  This is why it is so important to be testing for underlying infections, nutrient deficiency, eliminating chemical exposure, and doing all we can to correct leaky gut.  If you correct intestinal permeability, you can reverse an autoimmune disease.  I have done this over and over with patients, and the changes in their quality of life and thought of such a different future makes me overwhelmed sometimes.  THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.  If you don’t believe that, then I can only imagine the thoughts that run through someone’s mind knowing it will only progress and get worse.  That part of my job breaks my heart.

The silver lining is that even though you can’t control your genes, you CAN control your lifestyle.  I will be writing a number of articles focusing on different aspects of this including the story of gluten, dairy, nightshades, and eggs in addition to the powerhouses I utilize with patients including ferments, broths, and organs.  I never know much to simplify my explanations to help someone understand the connection, so I have decided to go a little bit more in depth on the blog.  That way I have the easiest answer possible “Go take a look at the articles on the blog and let me know if you still have questions!”  For a professor, it’s like trying to teach 8 years of physiology in 30 seconds (because that’s how long you have until people tune you out if they aren’t understanding).  Good luck with that one!  I hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions you would like to make sure I touch on along the way, feel free to shoot me a comment!