Leaky Gut - Do you have it? (Assessment)

Leaky gut? What on earth is that? The question being thrown at me many times over the last year or so, and a condition more people beginning to realize they may be suffering from it. Before we proceed further, please take note that up to 80% of our immune system comes from the gut. What does that tells us? Our gut is extremely crucial for optimal health and prevention of most diseases.

We have heard many times "You Are What You Eat". That may sound right in some way, but in fact, "You Are What Your Body Can Break Down". Seeing undigested foods in your poop, or unable to digest fats or protein from the foods you eat, there is no way your body can achieve optimum nutrients assimilation. You could be suffering from atrophy of the villi or chronic inflammation of the mucosal lining of the gut and in most cases, patients end up misdiagnosed by their doctors.

Unless you undergo functional lab testing, endoscopy procedure may be your only best bet to find out what is wrong with your gut. Most commercial standard health screening DO NOT include testing to investigate what is going on with your GI tract, especially your gut. There are couple of functional lab test companies (BIOHEALTH & CYREX) which are available in many countries, but you have to locate the practitioners or functional medical doctors to work with you on the test kits, results and protocols.

But, what else can we do if we can't get hold of these functional test kits and want to find out if we suffer from leaky gut? If there any assessment of other home test available? As I always tell all my clients and friends, no one will know better then yourself in regards to your own body. Not even your doctor, nutritionist, personal trainer or any health expert. All you need, is really listen and in-sync with your own body. It is signalling to you all the time, the symptoms and how you feel. From bloating to brain fog and constant fatigue and insomnia, the brain-gut axis is regulating each other all the time.

If you research in pubmed, you will not find studies/journals associate with leaky gut. Use the keyword 'intestinal permeability', and there you go, a whole list of studies related to this condition. Triggers which damage and cause gut permeability include wheat, sugar, toxins, most grains, chronic stress and primarily anything which raises cortisol stress hormone in an extended period of time.

Some of you readers might be wondering, why is this assessment important? Isn't the conventional health screening sufficient? Most health screening tests are just the 'tip of the iceberg' overview of what is really going on with your body. The below assessment is a manual, more detailed symptoms and lifestyle based data retriever, if functional lab testing is not possible. But, if you are able to run the functional lab for intestinal musocal screening and cross match with below questionnaire results, that would even further determining the severity of the intestinal permeability.

Remember, if your body can't break down the foods you eat, the assimilation capacity will be impaired, and that translate into poor digestion and malnutrition. Doesn't matter if you are eating organic whole foods or the healthiest diet on the planet. If you have leaky gut, the risk of autoimmune disease is almost inevitable, as every autoimmunity condition has a leaky gut component. It is now the third leading cause of death globally, behind heart disease and cancer. Your gut, is the most important pillar of health and the foundation of optimal health and disease prevention.

Questionnaire assessment:

• Did you get less then 8 hours of sleep most night?
• Do you crave for sugar, sweets or breads?
• Do you ever go more then 1 day without a bowel movement? 
• Do you have eczema, rashes or acne?
• Do you have autoimmune condition/disease such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hashimoto's, Psoriasis, MS, etc?
• Do you struggle with depression, anxiety or lack of mental clarity and focus?
• Do you have low energy level or frequent fatigue?
• Are you currently taking any medications or aspirin/ibuprofen?
• Do you have multiple foods sensitivities or food allergies? Example, gluten and dairy
• Are your stress levels moderate to high?
• Have you ever struggled with any type of candida, yeast or fungal infections?
• Do you have thyroid condition or sluggish metabolism?
• Do you have frequent diarheaa or loose stools?
• Do you have gas, bloating or other digestive issues once or more per week?
• Do you struggle with seasonal allergies?
• Do you have a very busy life?
• Do you have IBS, Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease?
• Have you ever been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease?
• Do you suffer from any type of pain including joint pain or headaches?
• Do you get sick often (more then 2 times per year) or feel like you need an immune system boost?

Now, if you scored 1-2 from the list of questionnaire, there is a high chance you have leaky gut. And if you scored 3 or more, you definitely have a intestinal permeability. In modern society, it would be rare for someone to get score zero in this leaky gut assessment. Unless you are very healthy and have been eliminating prescription drugs, stimulants such as sugars, wheat, alcohol and symptom free, you may be at low risk of suffering from leaky gut. 

Wrist Pain/Carpal Tunnel - What to do?

As we are seeing more people suffering from wrists pain or carpal tunnel syndrome, there are more desk jockeys at present time then decades ago. Conventionally, when we have a pain in a specific location in the body, we tend focus on that spot. Basically, treating the symptoms, aspirin for headache, or surgery for low back conditions. In this post, we are going to dive into some of the main triggers for wrists pain and what we can do to reduce or get rid of that problem.

As a sufferer myself, many years back, I experienced minor wrists pain and I didn't know what were the causes and how to fix it. For a moment, I thought it was regular hours of playing badminton as a sport when I was younger. Then, I found out by self experiment that it was combination of both foods reactivity (inflammation of the joints) and chronic poor sitting posture, and massive usage of computers. I was skeptical during the first phase of research, but I had to remove the reactive foods and amend my sitting posture and perform corrective exercises to counter the over used of forearm flexor muscles. 

It is important to realize that wrist pain condition or similar carpal tunnel syndrome could be more then one causal factors. It may be solely due to one chronic trigger, or perhaps combination of poor physical posture due to chronic sitting, regular use of forearm flexor muscles (primarily using computers and writing) and also foods which causes inflammation of the joints. And for most people, depletion of certain nutrients can also prevent the nerves tissues from regenerating and healing itself. 

Most people tend to think of physical pain is mainly if not solely because of wrong movements or poor posture integration. Example, how many people would believe that gluten or wheat can cause inflammation of the joints? Or WGA in grains bind to tissues in the joints and cause low level inflammation? And in most common cases, sugar. especially processed sugars and carbohydrates can lead to increased levels of Advanced Glycation End-Products (AGEs) which lead to further inflammation. 

The goal here is to reduce or remove foods which cause inflammation, and implement a diet which is anti-inflammatory and support nerves tissues repair and healing. If you are eating a high sugars, wheat and trans fat diet, there is a very high chance you may experience joints pain somewhere in the body. You are literally flooding your body with high amounts of cytokines and inflammatory chemicals. Joints pain is the least of the concern here, with cardiovascular disease and cancer are some of the bigger  health problems that you will potentially face if poor diet prolong for years. 

Although there are no guarantee that any solution can fix this condition entirely and permanently, I hereby provide some of the simple (if not easy) steps to practically implement in your daily lifestyle. For some, you may feel the difference almost immediately or within 24 hours, but for others, it may take a little longer to see improvements. Bear in mind, this is a non-invasive protocol, yet natural and non drugs based. 

1) Straight fingers Pressed 

Straighten all fingers as much as possible, you should feel the upper arm muscles contract.

2) Palm Stretching

Stretch out the fatigue overworked muscles of the bottom part of the forearm. Perform this stretch for 30-45 secs each palm.

3) Pectorals myofascial release

You could either use a myofascial ball, lacrosse ball or even pointed rehab tool (seen in pic) for pectoral muscles release. Focus on deep breathe inhale and exhale for 90-120 secs for each pectoral area.

4) Removal or inflammatory foods

• -Wheat or wheat based foods
• - Refined sugars
• - Trans fat (vegetable oils)
• - MSG

5) Nutrition/supplement

Magnesium oil - Supplement form, or diet rich in magnesium as mineral. It help relax blood vessels and muscular tissue that can cause compression of nerves in carpal area. For magnesium oil, apply topically onto the area which is experiencing pain, massage for couple of minutes and let it absorb into the skin.

Wintergreen essential oil - Contain analgesic effect, calms down inflammation. Apply few drops topically onto the area of the wrists. You can mix with coconut oil too. 

Vitamin B6 and B12 - Supports nerves tissues to regenerate and heal. Some of the foods are organs meats. seafoods, and high quality organic free range animal based products. Foods which contain a complete range of  B complex.

Anti-inflammatory foods - Ginger, turmeric, bromelain (pineapples), Omega 3 rich foods, organic vegetables, etc

Depression : Is it seratonin or SSRI deficiency? (Part 5)

As we have discussed and learnt about various factors which could trigger depression or similar brain disorders, the question we should all be asking ourselves (including medical professionals), are we suffering from SSRI deficiency? Or are we all in need of pharmaceutical drugs to address this medical condition? 

Depression, is now regarded as the 2nd leading cause of disability globally, and it is certainly affecting many people around the globe. People who suffer from depression tend to experienced conditions such as sleep disruptions/insomnia, eating disorders, digestive dysfunctions, mood problems, and for some, social detachment. 

From a sabotaging poor diet to inflammation, why are these factors not looked into by conventional dietitians, medical doctors and even alternative health professionals? Bear in mind that our body works as entire unit itself, and not isolated parts or systems. For instance, whatever happens to the mind, it will reflect the physical body, or whatever happen to the physical body, we will feel it in the heart or our soul. And if your heart is hurt, we will feel it mentally and also physically as well. Trying to only treat serotonin chemistry in the brain is more like only attempting to clean one small part of the entire dirty car which needed a comprehensive wash. Sounds like an easy fix to the problem, an easy way out convincing patients that a pill will fix your depression, and you depend on it for as long as possible. 

Let's dive into some of the ways to manage the factors which could contribute to depression or similar brain dsyfunctions. We will also look into some of the alternative anti-depressants for natural solutions and treatments. 

DIET

A huge factor which directly impact the brain and mood. Brain fog, headaches, mood swings, energy level fluctuation, all these are symptoms of primarily related to foods one consume. You can try to do an experiment to convince yourself, below is a simple.

Test 1

Eat a bowl of cereals with low fat milk, add with 2 slices of any bread of your choice. Sounds like a 'healthy' morning breakfast right? Low fat, grains and perhaps even whole wheat bread. Observe your [ mental clarity and focus, energy levels, cravings, bloating, gas ] and after 1 hour,and for the next 3 hours or so. How you feel after 1-3 hours upon ingestion of those foods will tell you a lot about the state of the brain, mental and physiological functions. Remember, you are eating a carbohydrates based meal, a low fat content, which what the dietary guideline recommended. 

Test 2

One whole avocado. A very high fat low carbs food/meal. Perform the same observations and ensure both these tests are done on separate days. Please sleep on the same time the night before, for fair accurate assessment. 

Apart from the simple test, bear in mind that eating a typical Western American diet, or even high carbs non organic home-cook meals coupled with wheat, it is a recipe for chronic inflammation of the brain and the rest of the body. The goal is to feed the brain its preferred fuel and nutrients, and remove or reduce as much inflammatory food groups or ingredients from your diet. Stop fueling the fire in the brain!

ALTERNATIVES NATURAL ANTI-DEPRESSANTS

• Chamomile
• Tulsi  (Arguably the most potent anti-stress herb on the planet)
• Licorice root ( help to regulate cortisol pathway, not meant for everyone, avoid drinking at night)
• Turmeric (curcumin) (shown in studies to combat inflammation in the brain)
• Coconut oil ( one of the superfoods to reduce inflammation and provide ketones for the brain)
• Omega 3 fatty acids
• Magnesium Oil (apply topically on the skin)
• Raw cacao powder (rich in trytophan and magnesium)
• Brocolli sprouts or sulfur based supplements (key in detoxification to eliminate toxins)
• Ashwagandha (help support thyroid and regulate stress, avoid night consumption for some people)

MANAGING TOXICITY, FREE RADICALS, INFLAMMATION

Anything that you put in your mouth, water or foods, will likely to determine if it's pro-inflammation or anti-inflammation. Doesn't matter if it's water or cheeseburger, your body will either classify the ingested substance as foreign invaders or nutrients for assimilation. It will either attack the pathogenic substance or digest the nutrition in the foods for the body's benefits. If it's activating immune response from either the the soda beverage you consume, or perhaps fluoride exposure from various sources, free radicals and inflammation will occur.

Be it from sugar or wheat in the foods you consume, or fluoride in the toothpaste or even polluted air which inhaled in the lungs, oxidative stress is coupled with stolen electron resulted in domino affect in the body, and inflammatory cytokines such as IL1, IL6, IL17 and TNF- Alpha will be flooding the gut, brain and the rest of the body too. As I've elaborated in previous post about inflammation, how it affect the conversion of tryptophan to 5-HTP, as BH4 is extremely fragile to oxidative stress. Same apply with conversion of phenylalanine to tyrosine to DOPA, your reward or pleasure hormone and also a critical neurotransmitter called dopamine.

Imagine, an average Joe, eating his typical processed foods diet on daily basis, high in refined sugars and wheat, that itself is enough to trigger high amount of inflammation in the gut, and thus, activating the GUT-BRAIN AXIS. Whatever happens in the gut, it will affect the brain. If you have regular brain fog, that's your brain on fire. Bloating primarily represents inflammation in the gut, be it from food sensitivities or just inflammatory foods such as grains, wheat, soybean, nuts, legumes, sugars, dairy products, etc.

The end goal is to remove these foods from the diet first hand, and identify the top of your list REACTIVE foods. Then, you might want to add more bio-available anti-oxidants from organic whole foods or supplements, whichever suit your better in long run.



EXERCISE

By now, everyone know exercise is good for you. Be it brisk walking in the park, or high intensity training, some movement is better then no movement. Is that right? Of course there are good and not so ideal form of exercises. As I blogged before, there are certain extreme exercises which may cause more damage then benefits to the body and health.

For instance, an individual has loaded his GI tract with sugars and wheat based foods for breakfast and lunch. Daytime stress level is high at work, and he or she decided to hit the gym at night for RPM or 90 mins or treadmill. The amount of cortisol produced throughout the day and night for this person, not only increased permeability of the gut, but resulting in even higher amount of oxidative stress and inflammation.

Solution? Simple. Listen to your body. Whenever you feel exhausted at work or lack of sleep the night before, avoid long duration cardiovascular type of exercise, or any extreme long bouts of training especially at work. You can either meditate in a dark quiet room, or relaxing form of yoga or energizing chakras work in exercises. Breathing exercises is beneficial to restore balance to the biological oscillators. And of course, go to bed early by 10pm latest.



VITAMIN D

Sun exposure is crucial, when it comes to regulating the neurotransmitters in the body and brain. As many people are avoiding the sun like a plaque, we are not only seeing more mental and brain disorders, and also chronic degenerative diseases such as cancer and stroke. This potent hormone regulate all vital neurotransmitters needed for brain functions, and it also inhibit inflammatory responses in the body. It is also a powerful anti-cancer substance needed to keep us all healthy. The darker your skin tone is, the more sun exposure you need. Get tested for 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D level, to find out if you are deficient in Vitamin D.




Now, what next? Where do I start? With so much of information, most people may feel overwhelmed, and for some, they may give up before trying any of these factors management and hitting the pills back again.

Do what you think you can first hand, and if you are a depression or anxiety patient, do not taper off the meds immediately before you manage your diet, lifestyle and factors which I discussed. Try natural alternatives anti-depressant solutions, different individuals will achieve various results. Remember, no one is destined to suffer from depression or similar brain disorders. Same apply with other neurological or chronic degenerative diseases.

Why Malaysia has become one of the most diabetic countries in ASIA?

I think this has to stop, I mean seriously. The population has become the VICTIM of health problems, particularly diabetes, obesity and chronic degenerative diseases. Strolling along the parks or window shopping in shopping malls have become a regular sight of noticing overweight obese people all around you. Being officially certified fattest country in South East Asia, Malaysia has become a nation of embarrassment, which regards to health status and weight management. 

In today's post, I would want to share with you all about one of the many cases which came to me, stories and real life experiences from my clients, and friends. Many of us are still in the dark about what conventional dietary professionals are taught, and is REALLY being prescribed as diet plan or protocol to their clients. How many of us realized that most of the Degrees of Dietetics and Nutrition are sponsored by Food and Pharmaceutical companies?

Imagine this, you are overweight and diabetic, and you need help to fix your diet and get your health and weight back on track. The next thing in your mind is getting professional help, in this case, consult a Registered Dietitian or Nutritionist. So, what do you do? Of course in almost every case, most people would either go to a hospital or contact these professionals. With high hopes of getting your life back on track, and being positive that you can get help to reverse diabetes from so called dietary experts, you have no idea what's coming next. 

A client of mine, recently came to me with desperate help of tackling her husband's health condition and hopefully being able to be normal healthy adult again. An individual and a patient of diabetes, and recent sufferer of Pulmonary TB ( being on antibiotics for 6 months ), he went to a specialist hospital and consulted a registered dietician. Keep reading...

I urged my client to bring me the diet plan which was prescribed to her husband, and after days of waiting, she finally sat down and showed me the Diabetic Dietary Plan. It was disastrous, utterly a recipe for diabetes, obesity and pro-inflammatory. The diet plan was so simple, and below are the translated version of Bahasa Malaysia.

Panduan Pemakanan Untuk Kawal Diabetes - Food Guideline for Managing Diabetes

Diabetes Diet Plan? 

Nasi -  Rice
Mihun - Noodles
Macaroni/Spagetti/Mee - maccaroni, spagetti, noodles
Bubur Nasi -  Porridge
Tosai - Made of flour and black lentils? High glycemic index
Putu Ayam - made of rice flour, usually eaten with refined brown sugar
Bun Kosong -  Plain Bun
Roti -  Bread
Oat (Mentah) - Oats
Biskut Krim Kracker - Biscuit Cream Cracker

Ubi Kentang - Potatoes  (starchy carbs)
Ubi Keladi -  Yam      (starchy carbs)
Labu Merah - Pumpkin    (starchy carbs)
Kentang Putar - Mashed Potatoes   (starchy carbs)
Jagung - Corn

From the above diet plan for diabetic patient, it is a recipe for dysregulating blood sugar and insulin resistance, developing diabetes, and setting one for other chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease, cancer, etc. A heavily high glycemic carbohydrates dietary plan, grains based protocol.  It sounded more like a diet meant for developing diabetes. Where are the healthy fats? Where are the leafy green organic vegetables? What happen to ancestral animal based foods? 

I wonder, why are rates of diabetes and obesity keep alarmingly increasing in industrialized countries such as USA, Australia and UK? Why wouldn't we become overweight, diabetic and diseased with the dietary recommendations endorsed and prescribed by dietary professionals as such? Even countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt are now influxed with American fast foods and processed foods too.These countries are one of the most obese and diabetic in the world. 

As everyone knows the food pyramid and the endorsement and recommendations from so called dietary experts in respective countries, we are all getting from bad to worst, while trying to eat a so called 'healthier' low fat, high carbohydrates diet. To be precise, a high glycemic refined carbohydrates diet loaded with sugars. 

Now, back to my client's husband case. He was given a general pamplet of Food Guideline for Managing Diabetes. No assessment made, no detailed testing conducted, pamplet given, and was asked to follow the diet plan for 3 months. It sounded very similiar to what American Dietitics Association professionals would prescribed to their clients in general. A diet plan based on calories in calories out, high GI carbohydrates blood sugar spiking foods, and no management on micronutrients nor inflammation, how would it be possible to even scratch the surface of managing blood sugar or reversing diabetes? Not to mention toxicity (such as pesticides, chemicals) in the foods or even intolerances and sensitivities? 

Are these dietary professionals bad people? Of course NO! Same apply with medical doctors who are not taught nor educated about information and fields which they are misinformed. I believe these professionals want to help their patients or clients, but in sad reality, the industries of diet, nutrition, and health/medical, have been so corrupted and powerfully influenced by the food and pharmaceutical powerhouses. 

One of the specialist hospitals in Malaysia, diatetics group

A dietary plan for diabetic patient? 

An organization which the population seek advise for dietary help, is sponsored by food and pharmaceutical companies. 

Reference: 
http://www.eatdrinkpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/AND_Corporate_Sponsorship_Report.pdf

Kidney Cleanse & Rejuvenate - Weekly Tonic

The kidneys are probably one of the most under appreciated organs in the body. Perhaps, the least most talked about organs, where silently regulating so many bodily functions without us even realizing it. When asked most people to name one function of these vital organs, you would be lucky to have 1 out of 50 people able to provide the answer correctly. These organs are delicately powerful are considered as the last stop for filtration and part of detoxification pathway. It's a cleansing organ. 

We eat and eat all the time, gulp down beverages loaded with sugars and chemicals on daily basis. Have often we think about our detoxification organs such as liver and kidneys? The kidneys are working hard every single day to cleanse and detox your body by filtering anywhere from 180-200 quarts of blood. They collect excess fluid and waste and excrete them out as 1-2 quarts of urine daily. The nephrons first filter fluid and waste, while preventing blood cells and large molecules like proteins from passing through. The filtered fluid then goes through a tube that adds needed minerals back into the bloodstream and removes wastes. Urine is the final product.

The kidneys are crucial organs because they have the job of keeping blood composition stable, which allows the body to function well. When your kidneys are in good shape, they:

• Prevent the buildup of wastes and extra fluid in the body
• Keep levels of electrolytes stable, such as sodium, potassium, and phosphate
• Produce an active form of vitamin D that promotes strong, healthy bones (if you have chronic low vitamin D and you supplement with it, look to tune up kidney health)
• Release hormones that help make red blood cells and regulate blood pressure

Symptoms of congested kidneys:

• Low libido
• Weak nails
• Brain Fog
• Lower back Pain
• Edema
• Poor Balance
• Poor Physical Development
• Bladder conditions/dsyfunctions
• Kidney stones
• Infertility

The Recipe:

1 cup unsweetened cranberry juice

A teaspoon of chlorophyll (chlorella)

Quarter cup of raw apple cider vinegar (organic)

Juice of two freshly squeezed lemons (use mixture of lime if desired)

Optional: a few drops of liquid stevia



Why These Ingredients?

Cranberry Juice

Cranberries prevent bacteria, primarily E.coli from attaching to the wall of the bladder. This means that infections cannot stick around inside your body. Most people know this, but what they don’t know is that a lot like a full-bodied red wine, cranberries are high in tannins. Tannins are an active ingredient in cranberries that work by helping your liver remove excess cholesterol out of your blood while flushing out bacteria and toxins from your kidneys. So, cranberries can help your other major detoxification system, the liver, to do its job better as well.

Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is just a powerful nutrient for health and a health food that often gets overlooked. It has many benefits for the human body well beyond the kidneys. It’s essential to the process of photosynthesis known as 'the building block for life'. Chlorophyll contains the trace element of iron which is helpful for anemia, low energy, and headaches.

Chlorophyll has an affinity for blood; indeed chlorophyll has been shown to increase oxygen uptake in the blood, which can increase energy, relieve fatigue and improve many blood disorders.  There are tons of heavy metals polluting our environment on daily basis.  Mercury is one of the common heavy metals, a potent toxin in its own right that can damage your brain, central nervous system and kidneys, and is especially dangerous for children, fetuses, pregnant and nursing women and people who have high levels of mercury.

Chlorophyll also contains vitamin C, inorganic salt, and is alkalizing. The combination of these things allows chlorophyll to assist in toxin removal, especially from the kidneys. Studies show it has kidney-protective properties and may also reduce the risk of kidney stones.

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

It helps detoxify the liver because it helps break down fats. Apple cider vinegar also helps prevent kidney stones from forming and helps remove bad bacteria E. Coli is usually at the root of a urinary tract or bladder infection. With adding both apple cider vinegar and cranberry juice together, bad bacteria will be depleted because they work synergistically together.

Lemon Juice

Good old-fashioned lemon juice has been shown to increase citrate levels in the urine. Citrate is a known inhibitor of calcium stone disease. This means plain lemon juice is a powerful tool to discourage kidney stones from forming.

** This can be made and consumed on weekly basis, or couple of times per week, depending on your diet, lifestyle, exposure to toxins and status of your detoxification pathway, especially the kidneys. 

Photo courtesy from MedicineNet

Depression : Is it seratonin or SSRI deficiency? (Part 4)

As we have learned in previous post of how toxins and inflammation can derail the health of our brain and triggering depression, today will be something different. We will get to know how our master metabolic gland can cause depression and symptoms as such. And yes, I'm referring to thyroid gland. This very important gland is much more well known amongst women, especially the ones who are suffering from thyroid disorders or diseases. 

People of all sorts, from an obese individual who easily feel cold, to hair loss and dry skin classic group of females, and not to mention the ones who have hard time trying to lose weight and maintain it long term. All these common thyroid symptoms are becoming more prevalence amongst the population, especially the last decade or so. You would easily see a 40% bodyfat woman in your workplace or cinema wearing long sleeve sweater, or the same old faces of 'treadmill buddies' in the gym all year round unable to shed off those fats in the body. 

Some are 'officially' diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and for others, an autoimmunity condition called Hashimotos Thyroiditis or Graves. Either or, if you are one of these patients, you could say good bye to feeling great. Apart from that, the conventional diagnosis and treatment is way far off from effective or helping the thyroid related condition. For most cases, treatments using pharmaceutical drugs, it create more problems then fixing anything at all.

Today, we will discuss about thyroid, and how its' conditions can mimick the symptoms of depression. As most people know what thyroid gland is and it's functions, let's just call it the master metabolic controller. And yes, for whoever concern about losing bodyfat and looking good, this gland is your best friend. Once you finish reading today's post, you will learn to show care for it much more, then years of thrashing it with chronic stress levels, fluoridated and chlorinated water and substances, sugars, wheat (gluten) and other thyroid destroying compounds. 

The thyroid gland is kind of a master gland. It affects just about every single cell in the body. What I like to think about what the thyroid does, in very simple terms, it actually speeds us up or slows us down. If we have an overactive thyroid, our metabolism will be quicker. Our heart rate is going to be faster. We are going to feel a little bit irritable, a little bit edgy. On the other hand, if we have an under-active thyroid, that's going to slow us down. We are going to be digesting slower, our metabolism's going to be slower. We are going to be thinking slower too. We might not be as motivated, we might be more tired. We are not going to feel as excited about life as we normally would have.

The question is, can thyroid be one of the root cause of depression? Basically, an under-active thyroid is associated with symptoms of slowing down. You think about people who maybe have brain fog. People will have symptoms of depression. They will have symptoms of fatigue. Of course, that sounds a lot like depression. Other things that happen is they may not be as motivated as they normally were, so that's apathy. That is another symptom of depression. Often times, thyroid disorders can be misdiagnosed as depression.

Thyroid working too slow or too fast. Now, let's jump a little bit into autoimmune disease for this particular gland. There are two main things that can go wrong with the thyroid. You can either have hyperthyroidism. The most common cause of that is going to be Graves' disease. This is an autoimmune condition. The other spectrum is Hashimoto's, which is the primary reason for having an under-active thyroid. That’s also an autoimmune condition.

People who have Graves disease will be more likely to have anxiety and panic attacks. They might be very, very irritable. Some patients might be even hospitalized for psychotic disorders. With Hashimoto's, in the early stages of it, what's happening is as the immune system begins to attack the thyroid gland, we have an initial transient hyperthyroidism because a lot of the thyroid cells are being dropped into the blood stream. All of these thyroid hormones are going to be too high. Then, all those get cleared out, and then all of a sudden the thyroid is no longer producing enough hormone. Then, you will be hypothyroid or you will have an under-active thyroid. This can mimic the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

In the advanced stages of Hashimoto's, people are going to feel more depressed. But in the early stages they might feel the ups and downs. Some of these patients are on heavy-duty psychotropic medications. They were hospitalized. Where in fact it was their thyroid disorder that was causing this.

The other interesting thing about Hashimoto's is that it's not really necessary to have an impaired function of the thyroid gland. Just having the Hashimoto's antibodies can be associated with feeling unwell and feeling depressed and feeling anxious and schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder. People with mental health issues have been found to have greater rates of thyroid antibodies.

The immune system basically makes antibodies to recognize foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses, different kinds of pathogens of that sort. In autoimmune disease what happens is the immune system mistakenly makes self-antibodies. In the case of thyroid disease, the immune system will start making antibodies to the thyroid gland. Thyroid peroxidase antibodies, thyroglobulin antibodies, are the two main antibodies in Hashimoto's.

What's causing the body to trigger the antibodies? Some of the causes are going to be, if I can put them in the main categories, are food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies, impaired ability to handle stress, impaired ability to handle toxins, gut permeability or a leaky gut, as well as chronic infections. A very good example would be someone ingesting loads of gluten in almost every meal, causing severe immune reaction and release of antibodies. Cereals for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, pasta or pizza for dinner, that would sum it up for a chaotic immune reaction in terms of dietary factor. 

For certain groups of medical professionals, it is known as molecular mimicry. That's one of the leading autoimmune theories, where the immune system recognizes something, a foreign enemy in the body, and kind of takes a snapshot of what that protein structure looks like. Then, basically it will walk around with that little snapshot. It’ll look for cells that look similar. If there's a protein sequence that is found in gluten or on a pathogen, that is similar to that of the thyroid gland, then the immune system will be attacking both.

You must be asking, "Are the doctors just not being trained on this?". Well well, if you are consulting or getting help from conventional medical doctors, good luck to you. One of the things that doctors are trained to do is just do a screening test for thyroid disease, which is known as the TSH test, thyroid stimulating hormone. This is actually a pituitary test. It doesn't measure what's happening in the thyroid gland exactly. It just measures the communication pathway. If everything is normal with you, with your communication pathways, the TSH test, if you have an underactive thyroid, is going to be elevated. For many of the alternative or holistic/clinical practitioners, TSH test is regarded a very ineffective approach and waste of time. 

We want to look at thyroid antibodies, because these can be elevated for sometimes decades before you see a change in TSH. They can actually cause a lot of their own set of symptoms, even if you have normal thyroid function. Thyroid peroxidase antibodies, TPO antibodies, and thyroglobulin antibodies are two of the biggest ones that are going to be present in about eighty to ninety percent of people with Hashimoto's.

It would be wise to get levels of free T3 and free T4 checked, which are the thyroid hormones. Those should be somewhere in the upper half of the reference range. Those are going to have slightly different reference ranges depending on the lab that you go through. Sometimes, those numbers can uncover if you have a thyroid disorder before the other numbers can. Also, looking at reverse T3 is another test that sometimes may be implicated in an under-active thyroid where all of the other labs may be normal. 

In reality, thyroid disorders are one of the most misdiagnosed of all health conditions. Most patients are not aware that thyroid medications are fluoridated and some of them contain fillers coated with gluten. If you do your own research, you will find out some shocking truths about these drugs.

Depression : Is it seratonin or SSRI deficiency? (Part 3)

In 1955, there were 38,000 people in the United States that were diagnosed as depressed. In recent years, the latest statistics showed 9 million people suffered from depression. That's a huge rise from just decades, less then 60 years of gap. We're not talking about a little bit depressed. Depressed enough that they're disabled, unable to go to work. It's the number two leading cause of disability now in terms of people not being able to show up for work anymore. It's clearly on the rise. This is happening all over the world, in many industrialized countries. 

When we talk about mood issues or depression, serotonin is the first word usually comes into mind. But how many people or even health or medical professionals know who the word serotonin means? Sero, serum, like blood, and tonin or tonifier. When they first discovered serotonin, one of its actions is that it constricts the blood vessels. Before they understood that it was a neurotransmitter, it was operating in your brain, they could see it outside the brain in the blood vessels causing things to constrict.

Serotonin is both inside your brain and outside your brain. Now we're talking about the serotonin outside the brain. It's mostly made in your gut in these enterochromaffin cells in the digestive tract. They produce 95-96% of all the serotonin in the body in the digestive tract. Your gut or also known as your second brain makes it. In the gut itself, it causes peristaltic action or contraction of the gut. That's its job there. You get tons of serotonin, you would get loose stools or diarrhea.You don't have enough serotonin you could get constipated. This again is just the serotonin in the gut.

In today's post. let's talk about toxins and free radicals affect on the brain and depression. First off, there is report from  American Academy of Pediatrics that 74 billion pounds of chemicals that are being imported or produced in the United States every single day! Is it possible then that the rise in chemicals could be associated with the rise in many of the chronic diseases we're seeing today? 

When you look at these chemicals and each and every one of them has some component of degrading mitochondrial function, whether it's in the electron transport chain, complex 1, complex 2, or whether it's in the Kreb's cycle or intermediates or co-factors. 

Let's go down to the basics. What is the mitochondria? It's the energy powerhouse of the cell. What it means is it's where you take in your outside sources of fuel. Your carbohydrates, your amino acids. your fatty acids, and you turn them into what would be considered cellular currency, something called adenosine triphosphate or ATP. It's the powerhouse. It takes in the nutrients and makes energy out of them. I'm not going to explain too much of details as you can do further research on mitochondria from the internet. 

Now, let's discuss about oxidative stress. Oxidative stress basically means destabilization, stealing of an electron from the outer orbital of a compound. Let's say you had alpha lipoic acid. Alpha lipoic acid normally has a very generous ability to give somebody an electron. When it gives somebody an electron, it's missing an electron. Alpha lipoic acid doesn't behave badly when it's missing an electron but if you have a toxin. Another example could be some benzene compound from cigarette smoke, and you're missing an electron, that substance will circulate around in the body. It will find a tissue and it will steal an electron from that substance. In doing so, it causes instability. Think of someone who always borrow money from you. Let's say your colleague or friend who always come to you and say " I need to borrow 30 bucks from you", and this loaning money activity keeps repeating again and again and causes instability. And of course, you know that something is really wrong here.

On the other hand, then there is the 'anti-oxidant' groups of people. These people often very generous and offer a helping hand. They are often giving and reduce the damage caused by the borrowers. Basically, oxidative stress means there are too many environmental people or constituents in your cell that are stealing all the time, these electrons.

The question is, what oxidative stress has to do with depression? What you can do is you can cause oxidative stress by exciting the immune system. Sometimes the immune cells will go around and attack constituents, let's say harmed cells, or let's say bacterial invaders. They’ll actually form oxidants in order to combat that particular damage or that particular organism. You can actually form radicals, what they call free radicals, that are unstable and steal electrons by activating the immune system constantly.

One good example, inflammation itself can cause that. If you don't have enough of the antioxidants around, you can destabilize in so many different ways. Any chemical that comes in that can pull off an electron. Mercury, another example, is a known toxin that everybody knows about. It can rob really, really quickly, destabilize the cell and form free radicals.

Think about it for a second. Digestion is the key for activating the inflammatory response, for activating the immune cells. You have more then 70% of your immune cells in your intestinal tract. All you have to do is excite them and then they'll secrete those inflammatory cytokines which will then end up next stop in the liver, activating the Kupffer cells there.The next step after that is the brain, activating the microglia and opening up the blood-brain-barrier. We now see there is a tight association with intestinal permeability and blood-brain-barrier permeability.

Lifestyle factors such as poor diet, smoking tobacco, things of that sort all cause oxidative stress. Now what does the oxidative stress have to do with depression? So many different ways. Let's take a simple one that everybody will understand. Let's take, for example, tryptophan metabolism. Many people when they're depressed, they'll take something called an SSRI, a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor. This is to keep serotonin around in the synapse longer so you will actually have activation from serotonin, the feel-good neurotransmitter. That feel-good neurotransmitter has to be made from something right?

There are building blocks for serotonin. The prime building block is tryptophan. Tryptophan is the
least common amino acid in the human body. You're lucky if you're getting couple of grams per day. It's tough to have it around so you really want to be efficient at turning tryptophan into things that you
need for proper mood like 5-HTP and serotonin but, guess what? The first step in the metabolic process, the biochemical step from taking tryptophan into 5-HTP needs a co-factor.

The co-factor is called BH4. This co-factor is very prone to oxidative stress and unstable. BH4 is also needed for other neurotransmitters such as dopamine. Phenylalanine to tyrosine and tyrosine to L-Dopa, and this very co-factor is needed but extremely prone to oxidative stress. Dopamine is known as the reward neurotransmitter. You feel accomplished in life. You feel secure with yourself.

So, if you have high level of inflammation and oxidative stress, a basic math calculation and common sense will tell you that you may not feel as happy and secure in your life due to depleted BH4 co-factor. The end products of needed neurotransmitters are low and insufficient. You may suffer from mood swings or feeling lousy most of the time.

On the other side of the coin, In states of inflammation, in states of oxidative stress, you will up regulate certain enzymes, an enzyme called IDO. This IDO enzyme actually will degrade tryptophan. Instead of pushing tryptophan through the serotonin pathway, when you have a lot of inflammation, when you're activating the microglia in the brain, for example, and you have chemical exposures, you've got stress, you have whatever it is that's activating the microglia, then you'll actually turn on these cytokines, and in turn, it turn on IDO enzymes. Cytokines is inflammatory, can activate IDO enzymes, and cause oxidative stress.

This IDO enzyme then will, instead of taking tryptophan to serotonin, will take tryptophan down this kynurenine pathway. The kynurenine pathway can actually end up producing something called quinolinic acid. It is neurotoxic and a toxin that actually binds to a very excitatory receptor in the brain called NMDA. It can lead to anxious and depressive type symptoms. In a nutshell, inflammation, oxidative stress play a crucial role in brain health and arguably one of the most important variables in determining if one is at risk of depression.

References/Journals: 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26130057
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26028548
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25900439
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25865484
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25825158
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26083579
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25907742