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Jimi's Daily Health Articles

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
So are you still eating gluten?

Gosh, gluten was one of those things that took me forever to commit 100% to letting go of. In all honestly, it just wasn't that easy.

We travel A LOT...and most of the world survives on some form of gluten. So when we were in rural Bolivia or France....I needed to feed myself and there was always bread.

Thing is when I finally let it go, I saw I HUGE shift in my inflammation. I have been committed to being gluten free (and dairy free) no matter where I am in the world for a few years now and don't regret it at all.

That's why when I was told this week that I need to eat gluten for 7 days in order to test my gluten sensitivity, I was a bit nervous.

Remember how I am running lab work on myself? Well, one of the tests I really wanted to run is for gluten sensitivity and celiac. But the test doesn't pick up on anything if you don't have it in your system. So I need to eat gluten for 7 days and then test 21 days later. That's when my immune response will be at it's peak.

You might wonder why I would want to test and go through this even though I feel better off gluten...and that's a really good question.

Well, I feel the more I know...the better.

If I have celiac, then I will know that I have an overactive T cell response to gluten. I will also know if I have the capacity to be relaxed or not around gluten.

But even if I don't have celiac, gluten sensitivity is no joke.

The target autoimmunity for gluten can be intestinal lining, skin or cerebellum.

Gluten sensitivity is still severe. Serious pathology can happen from a food protein due to cross reactivity.

Molecular mimicry is similar to many organ tissues in the body. Autoimmunity can be flared with celiac or gluten sensitivity.

The test I am running will check for wheat reaction and self tissue autoimmunity.

With the information that I find from this test, I can then prepare myself better when I eat out at restaurants and have a high chance of exposure.

We know that there are flavonoids that can help protect from gluten exposure:

  • Aloe vera
  • Quercetin
  • Luteolin
  • Apigenin
  • Lycopene
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
How to Alkalize Your Body


There’s a theory in the health community that…


Much like fire leaves ash when it burns, so does your metabolism. But we don’t call it ash. We call it metabolic waste. And metabolic waste, or what’s leftover after our metabolisms have consumed the food we’ve eaten, can be one of three things:


  1. Acidic
  2. Neutral
  3. Alkaline

Here’s the idea - some foods will metabolize and leave an acidic residue. Some will leave an alkaline residue.


Followers of the alkaline diet believe that raising the body’s alkaline level, and lowering the body’s acidic pH level, will not only promote weight loss, but protect the body against diseases like cancer and arthritis.


While there’s no scientific evidence to support that alkalizing your body is the reason for the health benefits people on alkaline diets experience, they do see improvements.


Let’s take a look at what eating an alkaline diet does for your body…




The Alkaline Effect


In case you don’t remember 8th grade chemistry, here are the broad strokes.


The pH scale measures how acidic or basic something is. 0 is the most acidic, 7 is neutral, and 14 is the most basic (or alkaline).


Now, different parts of your body have naturally variant levels of acidity or alkalinity. For example, your stomach typically has a pH balance of 3.5, which is very acidic. This is so that it can break down food more easily.


Your blood’s average pH balance is between 7.35 and 7.45 - so it’s slightly basic. Even minor deviations from that pH balance can produce a whole host of issues. If your blood’s pH levels are at 6, for instance, only a point or so lower, you would already be in a coma.


Although research is limited, there are studies that support the idea that eating foods with high acidic residue can lead to bone and muscle deterioration, cancer, liver problems, kidney stones, and heart disease.


Part of the reason for this is that when your body is too acidic, it uses calcium to restore your body’s pH levels to normal.


Another is that it’s the work of the kidneys to maintain the correct alkaline base. They filter out excessive acid through our urine and can become overwhelmed if we send them too much acid.


Alkalizing your body is a proactive way to avoid the ramifications that come with your body’s natural, unprompted attempt to stabilize your pH levels.


Alkalizing Your Body in a Few Steps


If you think you may be experiencing acidosis (or an over supply of acid in the body’s blood levels), there are several warning signs, including:


  • Brittle nails or hair
  • Gaining weight/being underweight
  • Low-functioning immune system
  • Chronic fatigue/low energy
  • Heavy breathing
  • Chronic infections/lots of allergies
  • Headaches and acne.

The first step in alkalizing your body is adjusting the balance of your diet. You want to make sure your consuming more foods with alkaline principles and less with acidic qualities.


(To be clear, we’re not talking about the acidic qualities of undigested food. We’re talking about the acidic qualities of their metabolic waste.)


Acidic Foods:

  • Meat, fish, and shellfish
  • Milk, eggs, butter, and cheese
  • Caffeine
  • Alcohol
  • Processed and refined food
  • Sugar, artificial sweeteners, refined grains
  • Tobacco
  • Whole grains and wheat

Alkaline Foods:

  • All vegetables, preferably green and raw
  • All fruits
  • Cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens
  • Root vegetables
  • Legumes and sprouts
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Onions, garlic, leeks
  • Wheat and barley grass
  • Grains like amaranth, millet and quinoa
  • Fresh Beans, green peas, lima beans, soy products



Alkalizing your body in the 21st century Western world isn’t easy. Most of the foods that result in acidic metabolic waste are staples of the Western diet - wheat, meat, dairy, sugar, etc.


Alkaline foods are largely plant-based and organic, suggesting this is the diet that would naturally maintain the correct pH levels in our blood.


To start alkalizing, it’s important to decrease intake of the biggest offenders in your diet. Other important steps include:


  • Drinking lots of water, to flush the toxins out of your system…
  • Eating vegetables as close to their natural state as possible (raw or steamed)...
  • Making sure to pair any acidic foods with foods that have alkalizing properties…
  • Getting plenty of exercise, as it helps to move the acidic waste towards elimination faster…
  • Being very careful not to overeat, since it overloads your digestive systems and causes processing errors…

Although more research is required to determine the true beneficial effects of an alkaline diet…


We do know that it’s crucial to maintain a slightly alkaline pH balance, and that excessive acidity doesn’t function properly in our bodies.


Be mindful. Chew slowly. Eat raw when possible. Stay hydrated. Treat your body the way you would treat it if fast food and Western indulgences weren’t available.


For references, please click here.
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years

  1. Damn! Page 47 of the manual is missing!
  2. Better save that. We'll need it for the autopsy.
  3. Wait a minute, if this is his spleen, then what's that?
  4. Oh no! I just lost my Rolex.
  5. ...and could you stop that thing from beating; it's throwing my concentration off
  6. Anyone see where I left that scalpel?
  7. Orthodox medicine has not found an answer to your complaint. However, luckily for you, I happen to be a quack.
  8. FIRE! FIRE! Everyone get out! See more doctor jokes
Here's one for Sandi
nurse-tired-funny-cartoons.jpg

nurse-cartoon.jpg
 
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Artemis

Gold Contributor
Member For 5 Years
My GI doc/quack wanted me to go on some Gerd meds. I quickly declined. The last trial of prilosec I had some adverse effects (I had small/large intestinal violent spasms). Even though I had taken this a year prior for something else (Ulcer) one can develop bad/adverse effects from these meds. It is recommended if one has to take them limit to 2 weeks or expect some issues.
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
My GI doc/quack wanted me to go on some Gerd meds. I quickly declined. The last trial of prilosec I had some adverse effects (I had small/large intestinal violent spasms). Even though I had taken this a year prior for something else (Ulcer) one can develop bad/adverse effects from these meds. It is recommended if one has to take them limit to 2 weeks or expect some issues.
How very true Sandi, Most of the time the problem is in the diet and can be controlled without taking pills. They had a warning out on Prilosec a while back:eek:
 

Artemis

Gold Contributor
Member For 5 Years
How very true Sandi, Most of the time the problem is in the diet and can be controlled without taking pills. They had a warning out on Prilosec a while back:eek:
They think I have a ulcer from the prednisone I was taking. Poly pharmacy at its finest. Take a pill get side effects -take a pill to counter the side effects. LOL My ulcer is getting better. (If its truly a ulcer).
 

Rhianne

Diamond Contributor
Member For 2 Years
ECF Refugee
My GI doc/quack wanted me to go on some Gerd meds. I quickly declined. The last trial of prilosec I had some adverse effects (I had small/large intestinal violent spasms). Even though I had taken this a year prior for something else (Ulcer) one can develop bad/adverse effects from these meds. It is recommended if one has to take them limit to 2 weeks or expect some issues.

My MIL was taking Xantac. I think she’s back to baking soda and water, which is the better way imho.
 

Rhianne

Diamond Contributor
Member For 2 Years
ECF Refugee
They think I have a ulcer from the prednisone I was taking. Poly pharmacy at its finest. Take a pill get side effects -take a pill to counter the side effects. LOL My ulcer is getting better. (If its truly a ulcer).

Jimi mentioned baking soda and I got some to put in coffee to cut the acid. It might help.
 

inspects

Squonkamaniac
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
Noticed your iodine link....been taking two-three drops a day for about three years now, haven't had a cold flu or anything else since I began taking it.
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
Noticed your iodine link....been taking two-three drops a day for about three years now, haven't had a cold flu or anything else since I began taking it.
I take it every day too about 3 drops, but I'm not that lucky:(, I wake dripping wet from a side effect from a drug I once took for my disease and now I have to live with being wet and very cold every morning:eek:
 

Rhianne

Diamond Contributor
Member For 2 Years
ECF Refugee
Noticed your iodine link....been taking two-three drops a day for about three years now, haven't had a cold flu or anything else since I began taking it.

I’m glad you and Jimi mentioned the iodine. I have some from Dr. Hulda Clark and I keep forgetting to take it. She was a pretty interesting doctor, imho.
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
When you hear "risk factors for heart disease" the majority of people immediately visualize a man. We're conditioned to it by the media, our physicians, and pharmaceutical companies.

A few years ago, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent her subscribers a unique Valentine's Day message. She told a touching story I originally thought was about her father.

"When my daddy had a heart attack...my mother took him to the hospital, where they kept him for a week. Forever after, my mother worried about his heart. And every year she would push and pull until he went to the doctor for a check up. Nearly 40 years later, my daddy died from prostate cancer. He'd never had any other problems with his heart.

By the time he died, my mother had been gone for two years. She had been in the hospital for some minor surgery. Daddy was sitting with her, holding her hand, when she suddenly sat up in bed and said, "Don, there's that gas pain again." She fell back on the pillow, dead from a massive heart attack. After the autopsy, the doctor explained that my mother had advanced heart disease and that there was evidence of damage over a long time – that her heart was barely functioning. All those years, she had worried about my daddy. But she'd never thought about her own heart."

Senator Warren did a great service sharing this personal story about her mom – born on February 14th – with her followers. She went on to discuss how important it is that women understand their own heart disease risk factors.

This is a story you should expect to see repeated over and over throughout the world because heart disease is the #1 killer of men and women globally.

When a cardiac event claims the life of someone you love, you have no time to prepare. For so many, their first cardiac episode is their last – a statement that's truer for women than for men. More women than men die of heart disease every year and there simply isn't much said about it.

You should hear more coverage from the news or the medical industry about a disease that kills a woman in the United States every minute.

But...you don't. You hear about breast cancer and psoriasis. You hear about anxiety and depression and bladder trouble.

Hardly a peep about the HEARTS of WOMEN.




Even the majority of scientific research done to date is skewed to reflect the effect of coronary heart disease on men...not women.

A report on the "Gender differences in coronary heart disease" was published in the Netherlands Heart Journal. It outlined the gaps in perception, prevention, treatments, and risk factors of heart disease in women.

"The under-recognition of heart disease and differences in clinical presentation in women lead to less aggressive treatment strategies and a lower representation of women in clinical trials."

They go on to point out several heart disease risk factors shared by both genders but are more dangerous for women than their male counterparts.

  • Smoking is much more dangerous for women under the age of 50 (than men of the same age) and the more you smoke, the greater your risk of endothelial wall deterioration. Smoking is one of the most pro-inflammatory substances you can engage in. It inflames and pollutes every cell in your body. It should come as no surprise that the delicate interior walls of your heart break down under the strain.
  • Obesity and body fat distribution could have a much greater impact on women than men in regards to heart disease. Visceral fat (accumulation of fat around the midsection) has been linked to a higher rate of death during a cardiac event. Women who are near or past menopause exhibit more danger from weight than males of the same age and comparable weight.
  • Diabetes results in more complications for females than males. In fact, it can imply as much as a 50% higher mortality rate for women with diabetes who experience a cardiac event than men with diabetes. As much as 90% of diabetes cases are type 2 and experts agree this form is 100% preventable and reversible with diet and lifestyle changes.
  • Hypertension and gestational diabetes during pregnancy mean you have a much higher risk of developing coronary heart disease later in life.
The best way to diagnose degenerative heart disease or determine if a woman is in the midst of a heart event is through positron emission tomography (PET) or cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) techniques.

These tests are not always available, simply aren't offered, or are not covered under most insurance plans which may cause patients to decline the high expense of the more accurate tests. These tests are better able to define dysfunction in smaller vessels and account for breast tissue where other imaging methods may fail. Women have been sent home to die while experiencing a heart event because their symptoms are not correctly diagnosed.

Though researchers are aware of these basic facts, there have been few studies and even fewer pushes to get the information to the female population. The closest thing to mass public information is the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" campaign.

It has to be stressed through entertainment media, commercials, insurance plans, schools, workplaces, and so much more. Most women (and an amazing number of men) know basic facts about breast cancer and (incorrectly) believe it to be their greatest health threat.

It's your heart. Your heart quitting on you without symptoms, without fanfare. That's your greatest risk. We have to push for more information and share that information with every woman we know.

As the Netherlands study stated in their conclusion, "Many biological differences in atherosclerosis between men and women are not yet clarified." Still not clarified. We are decades behind research of men and heart disease.

Women, it's time we catch up.

Much like Senator Warren's mother, perhaps you've been so focused on the hearts of your fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands...that you've been ignoring your own.

No matter your gender, age, or current health condition, there is more that can be done to protect your body's pump system. Right now, you need to make your heart a priority. Make the hearts of your loved ones a priority.
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
The Importance of Being Barefoot


Just about 40,000 years ago, human beings made an elective decision that changed the course of humanity forever.


They started wearing shoes.


Although scientific theories differ as to why we started wearing shoes, several common ideas prevail. For example, the time that we started wearing shoes corresponds with certain social changes humans were making.


Labor began to be divided. Agriculture started to replace hunting as the main source of sustenance. More precise tools were invented, such as sewing needles. So it seems as though shoes had less to do with protection being required, and more to do with the fact that we had the time and resources to consider covering our feet.


After all, warming your feet helps to maintain your entire body’s temperature. And about 40,000 years ago, we were able to think less about where our next meal was coming from, and more about how to make ourselves more comfortable.


In the modern world, there are much better reasons to wear shoes.


Concrete is dirty, litter is everywhere, and most of the world more than half of the world lives in urban environments.


But what have we lost by severing the connection between our feet and the earth? As with most human inventions, shoes have altered our biology significantly since we’ve adapted to a new mechanism that the human body wasn’t designed to use.


There are surprising health benefits to kicking off our shoes and letting our feet commune with the ground.


Let’s explore what some of those health benefits are…




Posture


Walking barefoot restores the body to its natural walking position, or gait. The shoes of the modern world are laced with technology that supports the heels, provides cushioning, and elevates and depresses the step in varying levels.


What that means is…


We’re not regulating our steps ourselves. The muscle groups we would have used to keep our spines erect and our gaits strong and regular aren’t being used and thus aren’t as strong as they would have been.


When the small muscles in the feet have a barrier between them and the ground they’re walking on, it dilutes the information that they send to the larger muscles in the legs, and the messages that they send to the spine.


Walking barefoot improves our natural posture and balance.


Hitting Reflex Points


The science of reflexology is pretty simple. There are reflex points on your hands and feet that are able to stimulate nerve functions to help you have more energy, better circulation, fewer headaches, more beneficial sleep, and reduced depressive symptoms.


When you walk barefoot, you’re stimulating the reflex points in your feet that chronic feet-coverers don’t expose to the world.


Walking barefoot allows the muscles in your feet to grow stronger, and the reflex points in your feet to be activated more regularly.




Negative Ion Charge


The earth has a negative ionic charge. Our bodies are made up mostly of water, which is an excellent electrical conductor.


What the means is… walking barefoot is a great way to connect to the earth’s negative ionic charge. What can that charge do for your body?


Research suggests that exposing your body to negative ions, either through the air, sunlight, or the earth, can reduce the symptoms of depression, influence cognitive performance, increase metabolism, regulate circadian rhythms, increase immune function, and promote antimicrobial activity.


Since it isn’t often considered safe to go barefoot in the corporate, urban universe humans have designed, being barefoot when you can is imperative. Shoes serve the purpose to keep our feet warm and to prevent penetrative injury.


So whenever possible - in the woods, in your home, on bare grass, at the beach - slip off your shoes and stretch your toes.


Take your piggies out for a spin!
 

Jimi

Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
CRAPWATER is tap water and it’s loaded with toxins that can destroy your health. It’s the “silent” killer and it gets worse every year. We even intentionally add heavy metals to water: fluoride.

Fluoride is more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. It is a cumulative poison that accumulates in bone over the years. According to the Physicians Desk Reference, "in hypersensitive individuals, fluorides occasionally cause skin eruptions such as atopic dermatitis, eczema, or urticaria. Gastric distress, headache, and weakness have also been reported. Fluoride even at dosages of 1 part per million, found in artificially fluoridated water, can inhibit enzyme systems, damage the immune system, contribute to calcification of soft tissues, worsen arthritis and, of course, cause dental fluorosis in children. In case you are wondering… it has also been linked to cancer.
 

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