Dr. Doni's Health Tips

Happy New Year! Cheers to Your Health!

The past month has no doubt been a clear reminder to many of us that “we are what we eat.” For me it was. While enjoying time with family in beautiful central Oregon, I drifted off my gluten-free, dairy-free diet a couple times and was quickly reminded of the impact of gluten and dairy on my body.

This time, however, I had a deeper understanding considering that I just completed further research and a presentation on gluten and its impact on the nervous system as I prepared for a presentation I will be giving in February 2010 in Manhattan.

Could it be that gluten, one of our culture’s most prized ingredients, causes anxiety, depression, insomnia, PMS, pain, attention issues, infertility, fatigue, digestive distress and much, much more?

Yes, it can be, and the research I reviewed indicates that it is so. In fact, researchers now consider gluten intolerance to be not only a severely under-diagnosed condition (1 in 7 people at least), but a neurological disease. Patients with severe and mild conditions alike have complete resolution when they remove gluten from their diet.

Considering my profound interest in how the body is impacted by stress, combined with my lifelong passion for eating healthfully, it became clear to me that...just as it is stressful when we skip meals (our bodies have to adapt to keep our brains supplied with glucose), it is also stressful when we eat foods (gluten for example) that cause inflammatory immune system reactions.

There is no doubt...stress exists in our busy lives. Our bodies respond to stress, whether from lack of sleep, a deadline or a car accident, by producing adrenaline and cortisol, both of which send subsequent messages that inhibit digestion, the immune system, all hormones and the nervous system. Research and experience tells us that minimizing stress, and assisting our bodies to adapt to stress, reduces all health conditions, including heart disease and cancer.

Still, even with the best intentions to reduce stress, one thing can lead to the next, leading to a vicious cycle. In other words... a stressful day at work, digestive upset (ie heartburn), a meal that doesn’t go over well, a bad night of sleep, or all of these things everyday for a month. Eventually the cause and the outcome are inseparable, and more bothersome health issues begin to appear. The only way out is to make dramatic steps in the direction of decreasing stress on your body overall, and often the first step is to avoid gluten.

How can you know if avoiding gluten may be a solution for you? It is now known that IgG antibodies to gluten are the best indicator. So as you might suspect, I can hardly wait to find out if my family members in Oregon, especially those with a history of health issues, are intolerant to gluten like me and my daughter.

For anyone who is intolerant to gluten and/or experiencing chronic health issues, I consider eating gluten-free to be the best stress reduction choice you can make in 2010. Yes, it is quite a shift from what you might be used to eating, which is why I have posted everything I have learned since Ella and I went gluten-free 18 months ago. Please visit: www.glutenfreequest.com.

If I can personally help you or your loved ones, please don’t hesitate to give me a call and set up a time for us to review the impact of stress on your body and, most importantly, what we can do to reverse that trend in the new year.

Warmest wishes to all of you!

Dr. Doni

If you enjoyed reading this blog, please do sign up for my health tips by emailing drwilsonoffice@gmail.com.

Dr. Doni Quoted in Natural Health Magazine

Article: Special Report: How to fight infection without antibiotics
By: Daniel Mazori
Issue: Dec/Jan 2010, Pg 52

Summary:
Considering the overuse of antibiotics and the ability to fight infections using natural therapies (diet, nutrients, herbs and homeopathics) while under the care of a trained professional, this article gives a thorough review of what natural therapies to use for infections, and how to use antibiotics safely.

Dr. Doni's Comments:
I find that, while sometimes it is necessary to turn to antibiotics and we would not want be without them as an option, it is also quite possible to fight off infections naturally. In fact, by allowing and supporting the immune system to do what it is built to do, we are actually preventing antibiotic resistance.

It can be scary at first, especially when antibiotics have been used frequently in the past, to go through an infection without reaching for antibiotics. It is most certainly important to start antibiotics if a fever remains above 100.4 and/or symptoms worsen and before a more severe infection ensues. Make sure to be in touch with your medical provider to ensure that appropriate care is given.

Meanwhile, whether on antibiotics or not, here are my five tips to give the body the best chance to fight off the infection itself.

1. Avoid sugar (sugar from sugar cane, corn syrup and sugar in juice especially), which suppresses the immune system, and food allergens (especially dairy and gluten), which add inflammation;

2. Get lots of rest (the immune system works while you sleep);

3. Take immune supportive nutrients and herbs. My favorite products are EHB for adults and liquid Respiguard (Echinacea and Goldenseal) for children. ARA (larch arabinogalactans) is also at the top of my list for both prevention and healing of infections.

4. Stimulate the immune system (as is appropriate for your case) with a hot shower/bath and/or what I call "magic socks" and

5. Take homeopathic Triple Flu Defense.

Be sure to be in contact with your medical practitioner anytime anything is concerning to you or if the symptoms are not improving. This is not intended to be a way to avoid medical care. It is instead meant to be a way to make your medical care experience more effective.

Please let me know if I can assist you to make the most out of your immune system.

Warm regards,

Dr. Doni

If you would like to start receiving my weekly health tips, please email drwilsonoffice@gmail.com.

Empowering Patients with Chronic Health Issues - Naturally

After a long, drawn-out process of attaining a label (diagnosis), or not, for the cause of unrelenting, annoying and painful symptoms that affect daily life, and then being told that the only options for treatment involve high-power medications with a multitude of side effects, it is no surprise that patients with autoimmune and other chronic conditions are looking for other answers.

While it is difficult to keep hope alive when all sources point to methods that will, at most, keep symptoms at bay for as long as possible, science and clinical experience have shown that there are indeed answers that can stop autoimmunity, and other health conditions, in their tracks.

Naturopathic medicine is a system of healing that involves a scientific approach to the body and the clinical use of specific nutrients, dietary modifications and herbal therapies to give the body what it needs to heal. We are what we eat, after all!

There are four main areas of physiological investigation that need to take place in order to really understand the cause of the inflammation and immune system attack on one’s own tissue: 1. Blood Type; 2. IgG antibodies to food; 3. adrenal function; and 4. neurotransmitter levels.

Blood type is not just for blood transfusions. Research over 100 years has shown that certain disease process are more common in certain blood types. That is because the sugar molecule on cells that makes it a blood type also reacts to foods and other substances in the body causing inflammation and destructive processes. While this process seems invisible, from the outside, it is real and potentially dangerous. Best to eat according to your blood type in order to avoid this source of damage.

It is well known that being diagnosed with autoimmunity can take over 10 years, and involve numerous doctor visits, blood tests and other diagnostic procedures. That is often the case with Celiac disease, a severe allergy to gluten. What do Celiac and other conditions have in common? Inflammation, fatigue, depression and much more. While in some cases patients with chronic conditions may also have Celiac disease, much more common is that patients have IgG antibodies to gluten, which is just as toxic. Testing for IgG to gluten, and other common foods, is imperative to surviving autoimmunity.

While stress has become a way of life, from the perspective of the adrenal glands (just above the kidneys) stress is a real threat and requires a response, every time. When the brain responds to stress, whether lack of sleep, skipping meals, emotional trauma or physical illness, the adrenals are called upon to release cortisol, a hormone, and adrenaline. The result is a cacophony of metabolic, endocrine, immune system and neurological changes, which, especially over time, create a internal environment of inflammation, autoimmunity, fatigue, hormone imbalances, sleep disturbances and mood changes. The only way to find out how the adrenals are holding up to this ongoing borage is through a urine and saliva panel not often available through conventional medical care (yet).

Neurotransmitters, the messengers in the nervous system, have everything to do with mood, sleep and energy levels. Balancing neurotransmitters is like walking a tight rope. A bit too much stimulation or inhibition, and the result is a change in how the day turns out. A remarkable, often unknown fact, is that neurotransmitters can be easily measured in the urine, making it possible to clearly identify imbalances that can then be addressed with nutrients and herbs. The real breakthrough here is that instead of shooting in the dark, so to speak, with psychotropic medications, it is actually possible to identify the underlying neurologic imbalance and correct it with completely natural substances without long term side effects, consequences or withdrawal symptoms.

With these four pieces of information (blood type, IgG antibody levels to common foods, adrenal status, and neurotransmitter levels), it is possible to dig into the depths of the origin of disease for each individual. From there, specific steps can be taken to adjust the diet and introduce nutrients and herbs that offer the body the ingredients needed to create a whole new body, cell by cell.