Wisdom of Healing

If you suffer from chronic pain you were probably stunned when you heard that Merck’s Vioxx was being pulled immediately from the market for a considerably increased risk of heart attacks. Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra, were originally believed to be safer than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s), the over-the counter medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen used by millions of people for hundreds of complaints.

These over-the-counter NSAID medications are considered to be safe enough to take every day, but research shows that even one dose can actually cause significant damage to the mucosal lining of the digestive tract, including internal bleeding. A recent study showed that regular use of NSAID’s was associated with small intestinal damage (lesions or ulcers) in a whopping 71% of participants as compared with only 10% in the control group . Aspirin alone is believed to be responsible for approximately 5,000 deaths every year in the US, and over-the counter medications are associated with 30,000 deaths per year. Just doesn’t seem right, does it?

Excess inflammation plays a powerful role in all of our chronic aches and pains, whether joint, muscle or nerve pain. But have you heard that research has now shown that excess inflammation is found to be associated with several degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, and many types of cancer? There’s certainly a great need for a better pain reliever and inflammation normalizer.

The search is on for a truly safe and effective alternative to prevent both daily pain and life threatening diseases. Meditation, deep breathing, yoga, tai chi and karate have all been shown to be noteworthy anti-inflammatory practices. Daily practice for as little as ten or twenty minutes can offer significant benefits. If we are in pain and/or choose to do what we can to prevent degenerative disease, we must be able to find twenty minutes in our busy day to obtain such rewards, right?

So, what else can we do to support our optimal health and find relief from debilitating pain and discomfort?

Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), based on thousands of years of herbal and nutritional medical practice throughout the globe, offers dozens of possible solutions using herbs, supplements and nutritional foods. Remember that quality is the single most important factor when choosing an herb, food or other product to support your health. Please read: Quality is Everything, posted to this blog on August 28, 2006.

Detoxification at regular intervals throughout the year was a practice employed by healthy cultures of people in every region of the world until recent times. It is estimated that an average American is exposed to as many as 7,000 chemical compounds in an average day through foods, water, air, cleaning products, work and play. One study revealed that a child on her/his fifth birthday has had the chemical exposure that an eighty year old had just 50 years ago. This would help to explain the significant increase in childhood diseases once considered to primarily affect the elderly. Many toxins are known to exacerbate inflammation within the body, contributing to our pain and discomfort.

Detoxification may be implemented as a daily practice, one day each week, a one or two week period every spring and fall or a few days at the start of each of the four seasons may be set aside for the observance of a cleanse. There are hundreds of detoxification practices, some better than others. One of the most important things to give attention to every day throughout the cleanse is the elimination process. The body’s elimination processes include sweating, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, urinating and defecating. Forgive me for discussing this, but it is of utmost importance. Achieving good bowel movements (two to three daily, and sometimes even more during a cleanse,) is essential. The toxins that are being stirred up inside as you cleanse may do more harm to your body or mind if not properly eliminated. For lots of detailed information about the detoxification process and various detox methods, please read: Detoxification, It’s a Matter of Health, posted to this site very soon.

There are many foods that help the body stay healthy and help prevent an excess of inflammation. There are also many foods that can increase inflammation. Let’s begin with those. I will share with you, however, that there are some variables in this discussion, depending on your family heritage and ethnic group. A good example would be that, for most of us, milk would be a trigger for excess inflammation, unless we are of northern or eastern European descent. (Even then, it could become a trigger, especially if we consume it in great quantities.) Having come from these regions, your ancestors would have always consumed milk products, therefore making those of us with this family heritage least likely to experience this particular inflammatory response.

Before we go on, I need to address one of my greatest pet peeves in the health and nutrition industry, and that is the amount of misinformation provided within generalizations. Except for nuclear waste, I don’t think that there is anything that is truly 100% bad (and I still hold out hope for nuclear waste to hold some redeeming quality or benefit). Most articles say things like: Dairy products are bad for your health; or Dairy products are good for your bones. Generalized is these ways, they’re both wrong!

Food Triggers that may Increase Inflammation

Homogenized and pasteurized milk products, when consumed by somebody over four years old, may not be good for our health, and are considered to be one of the greatest food triggers for an excess inflammation response. Another bit of that misinformation I was mentioning: I bet you didn’t know that the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study showed that drinking two glasses or more of milk daily does not decrease our risk of hip and arm fractures (osteoporosis) whatsoever! For a better understanding of how to achieve better bone health at any age, please read: Strong Healthy Bones at Any Age, posted on Sept. 20, 2006.

Yogurt, preferably organic whole milk, (not the commercial stuff loaded with sugar, fruit, chemicals, etc) on the other hand may benefit the majority of us, and is the dairy food that is least likely to produce an inflammation response. Although Asians as a general group are shown to be 90% lactose intolerant (unable to digest cow’s milk without the use of an additional enzyme product), research shows that this same population is able to digest (and thrive) with the addition of yogurt in the diet .

Raw milk and raw milk products including yogurt, when available, may be a better choice for the majority of us. I will not go into the whole debate about this here, but for more information for those who would like to better understand this philosophy, please visit www.westonaprice.org . Organic raw whole milk yogurt may be best of all, for those of us who choose to consume the most healthful and nutritious dairy products.

Now, back to our look at which foods may exacerbate an excess inflammatory condition. Commercially prepared dairy products, with synthetic hormones and antibiotics, may be more likely to increase inflammation than the organic and raw dairy product choices. Organic yogurt, kefir and other cultured dairy foods are nearly always the exception. And when it comes to cheeses, the rule of thumb is the harder and more aged (and of course raw if available) cheeses are more easily digested and are likely to produce less inflammation within the body. If you love dairy products, and you cannot imagine your life without them, but you need to work on reducing the inflammatory triggers, you may want to experiment with goat or sheep (and other mammal) milk choices. They are becoming more readily available in health food stores and grocers, but visiting the farm and purchasing directly from the farmer, when possible, provides the freshest products, and it makes a great field trip for the kids!

Likely, the biggest culprit in the American diet contributing to an unhealthy inflammation level is the quality of oil that most of us are using. Trans-fatty acids, or trans-fats, have certainly gotten the notoriety that they’ve deserved. But most folks do not realize how very harmful fried foods and the commercial vegetable oil in their cupboard really can be. Hydrogenated vegetable oils have been strongly associated with increased breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, poor blood lipid profiles (cholesterol and triglycerides) and overall excess inflammation, especially in women. (The ‘overall excess inflammation’ may also apply to men, but there are more studies with women at this point.)

In regions of the world such as the Mediterranean area and Japan, where high quality cold pressed oils are consumed abundantly, these diseases barely exist compared to America. One study showed that “together with regular physical activity and not smoking, [the] analyses suggest that over 80% of coronary heart disease, 70% of stroke, and 90% of type 2 diabetes can be avoided by healthy food choices that are consistent with the traditional Mediterranean diet” .

The nightshade family of vegetables, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, paprika and chili peppers has been linked with increased inflammation since the 1940’s. Many people have found a near elimination of arthritic flare-ups when these foods are completely eliminated from the diet. Many derivatives of these popular foods are found in commercially prepared products, so the elimination process can certainly be tricky, but with careful reading of labels and steering clear of restaurants for awhile (since we cannot read the ingredient labels), you may experiment with the removal of the nightshade family from your diet, and see how you feel.

Chemical preservatives and additives can trigger an immune, and therefore, an inflammatory response in the body. Nitrates, nitrites, food colors and artificial flavorings should be avoided to help the body that’s aflame. Processed meats and ‘junk foods’ are loaded with these chemicals. You’ll want to avoid them whenever possible.

Refined sugar is well known to be potentially harmful to those who overindulge, certainly the majority of Americans. One of the many ill effects it can have on the body for many of us is an excess inflammatory response. Yet another great reason to avoid refined sugar whenever we can!

Recently, there has been an increased awareness of gluten intolerance and a condition called called Celiac disease. Gluten, the protein found in wheat and related grains, is believed to be a significant trigger for inflammation. When sprouted or cultured, wheat is less likely a factor in those with gluten intolerance (sprouted grain and sourdough baked goods are available), but those with true Celiac need to make serious lifestyle changes, and avoid wheat products completely for best results. There are dozens of companies devoting themselves to gluten-free products, but the problem more likely arises from the consumption of a very narrow range of foods. Our ancestors were known to eat with the seasons, and consume as many as 500 different vegetables, fruits, grains and other wholesome foods over the course of a year. Today, many people eat from a small range of seven or ten or fifteen foods, limiting nutritional support and thereby damaging the body’s digestion and immune response.

Simply substituting another type of (gluten free) flour for the wheat and white flour may provide relief in the short-term, but it is certainly not the long-term solution. The human body needs a wide variety of nutrient rich foods for optimal health, so we need to change our eating habits and broaden our menu to include many more vegetables (and cultured whole foods) to remain fit and healthy.

Wheat is not inherently bad, just dramatically overused in our culture, leading to the body’s overreaction to it. Eliminating it for a period of time, minimum of two weeks and as much as six months, then reintroducing it slowly to see if symptoms return immediately (meaning within a few days) will help you and your healthcare providers to determine your particular situation and individual needs. Please do a web search on Celiac (formally called Celiac Sprue) and gluten intolerance to learn more.

Another big trigger in the modern diet may be soy. Most of the health benefits associated with soy come from the research of miso and natto, two fermented soy foods eaten daily in the traditional Japanese diet. Miso and natto are usually consumed in small amounts (one teaspoon per day is a good amount), more like a condiment. The traditional Asian diet did not contain the large protein sources that many Americans, especially vegetarians, eat in soy foods. Many Asian cultures believed that if soy was not cultured (fermented) or sprouted (as with edamame), soy was inedible and indigestible. Please note: Tempeh, a traditionally cultured soy food from Indonesia, may be substituted for tofu in nearly any non-sweetened recipe. For best results, slice or cube, then sauté in a small amount of coconut, olive or sesame oil before adding to the desired recipe. For more information on the topic of soy, please read: Myths in Nutrition-part one-The Great Soy Debate, posted to this site shortly.

Corn, another common food allergen, may also increase inflammation when we are susceptible. Another over-consumed food in today’s diet, corn products may be eliminated to see if this is a food that you will need to avoid, at least for awhile.

As you can plainly see, most of the foods consumed in the narrow American diet, often referred to as the standard American diet, or SAD for short, can put a body on fire with excess inflammation. Considering the effect that inflammation is shown to have, it is time to find a wider range of choices for dinner!

Foods to Support a Healthy Level of Inflammation

This next section will be focused of the healthier choices for supporting the body that is on fire with pain and/or excess inflammation, whether we are aware of it yet, or not. Research has shown that many dietary choices can help, and may I once again remind you that quality is truly everything, when we choose foods and products to support our health and vitality. (If you haven’t already, please read: Quality Is Everything!, posted to this blog on August 28, 2006.)

Eat more vegetables! When I teach my classes, I often have people attending who share that they eat only two or three vegetables in their diet. This is not good, if we want to experience good health and vital energy levels. I urge my class participants, as I urge you now, to consume as many vegetables as you can possibly find! Visit farm stands, farmers’ markets and Whole Foods Markets, if you have one in your region. (They have a huge selection of organic veggies, educated team members to offer you complete answers to your questions and a great selection of cookbooks in most of their stores to help you know what to do with your newly found vegetables.)

Experiment with new vegetables every week. Purchase enough to be able to prepare it at least two different ways. You may go online for recipes, ask at the store, visit the library cookbook section or just steam or sauté (in good oil, of course). For best results, as you’re trying them for the first time, be sure to have an open mind.

Root vegetables are very supportive of the body’s ability to cool the inflammatory fires. Carrots, turnips, radishes, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, and my personal favorite, sunchokes (formerly referred to as Jerusalem artichokes) have myriad health benefits, including supporting digestive and immune health. Previously, it was believed that somebody with blood sugar issues, especially diabetes, should stay away from these roots, but more recent research suggests that these vegetables, in spite of their starch content, do not adversely impact blood sugar and may provide additional benefits.

Dark leafy greens are nutritional powerhouses, loaded with minerals, vitamins, fiber, trace minerals and phytonutrients. I do not refer to lettuce (even romaine) here, but the true dark greens, such as kale, collards, spinach, arugula and watercress, (as well as most of the weeds we yank from our vegetable gardens!) These dark leafy greens are not only cooling to those of us whose excess inflammation is a concern, but they are very supportive of bone health, healthy blood, detoxification, beautiful skin and just about everything else. Find any recipe that calls for spinach, and substitute your choice of the other dark leafy greens.

If you’re new to eating dark leafy greens, try sautéing two to three cloves of chopped or sliced garlic in a high-quality oil over low heat. Wash and chop your chosen green vegetable. Toss it into the pan, add about a TBSP of water, cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer. Arugula and watercress take only a minute or two, while kale and collards take about seven to ten minutes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, a pat of butter, a splash of vinegar (not white) or a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. Simply delicious!

Cruciferous vegetables are loaded with nutrients and are well-known to help prevent many types of cancer, including breast, lung, colorectal and prostate. The cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, rutabaga, Swiss chard, turnips, bok choy and Chinese cabbage, arugula, horse radish, radish, wasabi and watercress. There are hundreds of fun ways to prepare and eat these vegetables. It’s high time to get started, if you haven’t already!

Sprouts, especially cruciferous sprouts, are delicious, easy to eat a handful a day (on almost anything and everything you’re serving), inexpensive, easy to grow and abounding in essential nutrients. According to Chinese medicine, sprouts are very cooling. The research on sprouts, and the benefits they provide, is overwhelmingly positive. Try a few broccoli or radish sprouts the next time you visit your local health food store. Chances are good you’re going to love them!

Sea vegetables, or seaweed, considered to be the most nutritious foods on Earth, are mineral dense and contain a wealth of the building blocks necessary for healthy cells. Americans are usually not familiar with eating these nutritious vegetables, but they have been a staple in healthy cultures of people near the seas, likely for all time. For more information about cooking and using sea vegetables, please read: Strong Healthy Bones at Any Age, posted to this site very soon.

A word about children and veggies (and introducing other healthy new foods, too):
I’ve been blessed with two absolutely wonderful daughters who love vegetables! Many people over the years have asked me how this could be, as their child(ren) won’t touch a vegetable if their lives depended on it! (And their optimal health really does depend on it.) The answer is that children eat what is there in the house. If you feel your children eat too much sugar and ‘junk food’ and not enough vegetables, the solution can be easy, really. Clear the house of the sugar and junk, and provide lots of yummy vegetables. Most parents who have tried this method were surprised to find that by the third day (be patient, some beautiful, stubborn souls take a little longer), their children begin to eat the vegetables. It sounds like a miracle, but I have yet to meet or hear about the exception!

Another great technique is the ‘thank you bite’, which we employed for much of the girls’ childhoods. We had a rule that, because the cook took the time to prepare each dish (and the farmers used their resources to grow them, etc) the polite thing is to try one bite, the ‘thank you bite’. I would often add additional comments such as, ‘you never know, you might even like it!’ Please note: This method doesn’t work well if it becomes a power struggle. My younger daughter, Mollie, a powerhouse if ever there was one, was a willful child, to say the least. Rather than make a huge thing of the ‘thank you bite’ routine; at every opportunity, I simply stated the request, and added a little tidbit about the flavor of the food, or a nutritional fact, or the growing method, or something to attempt to pique her interest, and then I’d more on. Eventually, my little powerhouse was not only trying the food or dish, but finding that she really did like many of them (although not always on the first try). Please read: Children Love Healthy Foods! to be posted to this site very soon.

Another tool to try with children is to let them help with the food preparation. Children will often try a little taste as they go, and be more willing to taste what they helped to prepare. They are never too young to help out with something.

Children very often enjoy watching and helping with the process of growing sprouts. Most sprouts take only three to seven days to mature, and it is very exciting to observe the changes that take place each morning and evening as they grow. I have sprouted for years, and the beauty of nature, watching real alchemy in action, never gets old!

And the best way to get the kids to eat their veggies is by setting a good example! If you aren’t eating them, then likely you will find very little power in convincing your little ones to eat vegetables.

Other foods to support a health level of inflammation include organic green tea, spices including ginger, turmeric and oregano, whole grains and cultured whole foods. Notice I specified ‘organic green tea’, and didn’t include the commercial brands, too. This is because the tea crops throughout the world are most often heavily sprayed with chemicals (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, etc) when they are not organically grown. Remember, chemical exposure may exacerbate excess inflammation.

When you make a habit of preparing and eating the herbs and spices in your daily diet that are shown to cool the flames of excess inflammation, you want to have your attention on the quality of the product you are buying. Ask yourself the following questions before your purchase, to be sure what you’re getting a product that may offer you the benefits that the research has shown:
Is it organic?
Am I buying an amount that I can consume within a month or two?
Does the jar that contains the bulk herb in the store have a tight-fitting lid that was closed well when I arrived?
Does this market sell enough bulk herbs so as to assure freshness?

Then, when you get home, be sure to transfer your bulk herbs and spices from the bag into a jar with a tight fitting lid. It’s a good idea to always mark your jar with the name of the herb or spice and the date purchased. Now it’s time to cook up your favorite dish!

Whole grains should be eaten whenever possible, instead of the white, refined ones of our culture. If you haven’t yet switched from white bread to a whole grain, there’s no better time than the present. Be sure there are not preservatives listed on the ingredient label.

A rule of thumb, when reading labels: If it sounds like a chemical, it is a chemical! It really doesn’t matter that much if the chemical originally came from a zucchini or a yam, if it was isolated with the use of chemical solvents and all the other constituents of the zucchini or yam are gone, then it’s a chemical, plain and simple! Please do not be fooled by companies that call their product natural because their chemicals used to be part of a coconut or an apple! Side effects have been associated with virtually all isolated, manufactured chemical compounds, regardless of their origin.

Now, back to whole grains. ‘Whole’ ideally means intact, so it would be best to eat brown rice, buckwheat (which, by the way, is not in the wheat family and contains no gluten), millet and whole oats than to eat wheat bread or oatmeal made with quick cooking oats. When we pulverize that whole grain into a thousand pieces, it’s not really whole anymore, is it? Whole grain flour is really an oxymoron, but what it is implying is that the germ and the fiber have not been removed, which is certainly better than white flour. In my estimation, we need a different name for it, since a thousand little bits is far from whole! But, alas, I simply can’t change the whole world at once!

The more truly whole grain breads and baked goods are the sprouted grain products, usually found in the freezer section of your local health food store. They definitely require more chewing than one might be used to, but the flavors are complex and delicious! Some of the best brands are: Food for Life, Ezekiel and French Meadow Bakery. And for a sweet treat, try the Manna Bread selection. Careful though, they’re quite gooey!

Another important category of foods that seems to support a healthy inflammation level, and is sorely lacking in the American diet, is cultured (fermented) whole foods. This would include yogurt, miso, sauerkraut, pickles, pickled beets and even red wine and micro-brewed beer! These foods (and beverages) have been consumed daily in small quantities by healthy cultures of people throughout the world for more than 7,000 years. They have been written about in some of the earliest medical texts as supporting digestion and immune health, and found in numerous tombs.

Until recently, it was believed by the masses that culturing foods was simply a method of preservation before we had the refrigerator. But the story is so much greater than that! Fermentation is a true alchemical process where the beneficial microorganisms used in the culturing process actually biotransform the original food and its associated nutrients into something much, much greater than the original food contained! All of the B vitamins are multiplied dozens or even hundreds of times, and there have been millions of micro-nutrients produced through fermentation that did not exist in the original food! This is a fascinating field of study at the current time, and I commend the food science researchers who are committed to working with fermentation . It certainly confirms what many of us have firmly believed for decades; that cultured whole foods are an essential part of any healthy diet.

Fish is the last healthy food group that we will discuss here today for supporting our body’s ability to keep inflammation to healthy levels. Most of the fish sold in grocery stores today is farm raised, with lots of chemicals. These chemicals include synthetic hormones and antibiotics. The fish are raised in over crowded and unsanitary conditions, and the resulting product offers only a small fraction of the nutrient profiles that their free-swimming cousins provide for us. Did you know that most farm-raised salmon is a white fish, which has been dyed red to look like the pinkish-red salmon we were once used to buying? And it contains little, if any, of the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids that its free-swimming cousin contains, well researched for supporting the good inflammation levels we so desperately need to return to. When you buy fish for health purposes, be sure to ask for details. Don’t get fooled!

As you can see from the information above, if we eat what is strongly believed in the early twenty-first century to be a healthy diet, and avoid those foods deemed less healthy, then we are taking a giant step in the right direction toward keeping our inflammation levels in a healthy place. But if you regularly dine on fatty foods and what’s widely referred to as ‘junk food’, excess inflammation may be getting the better of you and your health.

Herbs to Support a Healthy Inflammation Response

Using herbs for good health has likely been going on since there have been human beings. Herbal medicine is still, to this day, the most widely practiced medical system in the world. Until recently, there were few scientific studies to indicate the effectiveness of herbal remedies, likely due to the cost of conducting a proper scientific study, and the unlikelihood of then being able to patent the herbal product. But this is changing. Much more research is being conducted. In great part, this is likely due to the fact that some of the earlier studies that have gotten funded and conducted in Japan and at prestigious facilities such as Harvard University showed very promising results with those people who eat more healthy foods and use more herbal preparations.

Spicy herbs like oregano, turmeric, ginger, holy basil and rosemary, widely used for thousands of years, are recognized in quite a number of studies to help reduce inflammation. Research is also now indicating that these herbs may also be effective in helping to prevent heart disease, various cancers, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Studies are underway to see if herbal products may also be safe alternatives for the treatment of some of these and other serious health conditions.

Turmeric is considered to be the single most effective herb for use as an antioxidant and for supporting a healthy inflammation response within the body. Pure, organically grown turmeric in a full-spectrum extract can assist the body’s ability to detoxify the liver and blood, thereby helping with healthy blood lipid profiles (cholesterol and triglycerides). Most of the turmeric products sold on the US market are chemically extracted. There have been concerns that these more drug-like products may come with potential side-effects. Look for the purest, preferably organic, and most potent product available in your area. For a listing and comparison of the most reliable companies’ products, please read: Herbal and Nutritional Products: Good, Better and Best, posted to this site very soon.

Omega-3 fatty acids are some of the ‘good fats’, and are found in fish, especially fatty fish, flax and hemp seed. Research describing omega-3 fatty acids as modulators (balancers) of inflammation and a healthy immune response abounds. Many of these studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids can have powerful anti-inflammatory and immuno-modulatory activities in a wide array of diseases (e.g., autoimmunity, arthritis, and infection) . Again, it is of utmost importance to purchase a high quality product, as many fish oil products on the US market are laden with contaminants, including heavy metals, especially lead and mercury, or chemicals such as PCB’s and toxaphene (from insecticides), and dioxins (by-products of the chlorine bleach used to whiten paper.

Enzymes are produced in the body to perform a wide variety of biochemical reactions. There are more than 50,000 different enzymes, both digestive and metabolic, that perform tens of thousands of functions within the body each day. Research as far back as 1956 shows that enzymes, specifically proteolytic enzymes (protein digesting enzymes), help to modulate excess inflammation through a variety of mechanisms, including reduction of the swelling of mucous membranes and of dissolving excess fibrin deposits, the material that is used by the body to plug a bleeding wound site, but can thicken the blood until it doesn’t flow easily. Many Naturopathic physicians suggest the use of proteolytic enzymes taken with meals to support digestion, and in between meals to support healthy inflammation levels.

Considering the list of serious potential side effects (including death) associated with both over-the-counter and prescription medications for inflammation and pain, choosing healthier foods, herbs, supplements and lifestyle choices may be just the ticket to better health and inflammation levels that you can feel better with.

Source references:

Graham DY Visible small-intestinal mucosal injury in chronic NSAID users. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 2005.

Nurses’ Health Study News 2004 volume 11:4-5

Biomed Environ Sci. 2005 Jun;18(3):192-7

Public Health Nutrition 2006 Feb; 9(1A):105-10. The Mediterranean diet: science and practice.

Annu Rev Nutr. 2006;26:45-73 Fatty acids as modulators of the immune response.

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