Modern electrical and wireless technologies have enhanced our lives. However, cellphones, Wi-Fi and smart meters have not undergone pre-market testing for safety, and research suggests that illnesses result from electromagnetic radiation. Jim Waugh will share how to protect your health from his book, Living Safely with Electromagnetic Radiation.

No registration required.

Those wishing to take advantage of the listening assistance technology are asked to arrive 15 minutes early.

The cause of IBD is still uncertain, but is generally accepted as a combination of genetic factors, immune system disturbances, and complex environmental factors (infectious, dietary, psychological, and emotional).

Complications of IBD include rheumatoid arthritis, skin lesions, liver disease, colon cancer (risk increased especially with ulcerative colitis), malnutrition (due to reduced food intake or diarrheic nutritional loss, and accentuated by malabsorption and by overgrowth of bad bacteria in the small intestine), and many others.

The Eating Alive Program has proven benefits in the treatment and management of IBD by addressing the most critical elements:

• establishing or restoring the healthy intestinal flora (especially for dysbiosis due to fungal, yeast, or clostridium bacteria overgrowth)
• supporting the liver function for optimal detoxification of the body
• improving the digestion, with a special attention to strengthening the ileocecal valve and the intestinal tract
• optimizing the nutritional status through a healthy and hypo-allergenic diet that reestablishes the natural alkalinity/acidity of the alternating GI segments.

Following the Eating Alive Diet is a very important factor in managing IBD. Simple sugars and refined carbohydrates, alcohol and caffeine, as well as most cereals, dairy and fruit should be limited or avoided. A good “old-fashion” diet is recommended, with a variety of soups and stews made from fresh and organic vegetables. This diet includes good sources of protein like cold-water wild fish, for their rich content of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, as well as protein-rich vegetarian foods like quinoa and hemp seeds, or proper combinations of legumes and grains. Wheat and gluten should be avoided, but small amounts of whole grains like quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, and rice can be included, as well as certain legumes, nuts and seeds, and some healthy unrefined oils. After following the Eating Alive Diet for awhile and with improvement of symptoms, some of the avoided foods can be slowly reintroduced, under the naturopathic doctor’s guidance.

This dietary regime should be characterized equally by moderation and diversity of food choices.  Repeated intake of the same limited number of foods would cause or maintain food sensitivities while limiting the spectrum of nutrient intake.

For some cases where food allergens or sensitivities should be identified and avoided, IgG testing can also be done to determine existing food sensitivities and to enable avoidance of triggers. Please see our website-”Lab Testing & Diagnostic Imaging” for information on IgG testing as well as on booking an appointment for a naturopathic assessment.

2 TBSP coconut oil
2 lg onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ inch knob of ginger, minced
¼ tsp chili flakes (use if not sensitive to spice)
1 kg carrots (approximately 8 large), roughly chopped
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock, homemade or good quality
4 cups filtered water
3 bay leaves
½-1 tsp unprocessed sea salt
1 400ml can of coconut milk
2-3 TBSP lime juice
¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped (optional)

Sauté onions in coconut oil in a soup pot on medium-low heat until softened. Add garlic, ginger and chili flakes (if using) and continue sautéing for another minute or two. Add carrots, stock, water, bay leaves and salt. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes with lid on until the carrots are tender. Remove bay leaves.

Puree soup either by using an immersible hand blender or in a blender in batches. When smooth add coconut milk and reheat but do not boil. Stir in lime juice. Adjust salt if needed. Serve garnished with cilantro or parsley. Serves 6.

For more information click here 

For more info, please go to JennKingCHt.com/hypnobabies.  To register for a class, please call 604.375.8831

1 cup of dried navy beans             
2 medium carrots chopped
5 cups of water                                                 
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1 large onion chopped  
1 can (8oz) tomato sauce
2 stalks of celery chopped
1/4 cup parsley
sea salt and pepper to taste    

Soak beans overnight in the water. In the morning, put beans on to boil. Meanwhile, saute onion, celery and carrot in coconut oil until golden, about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Add to the beans with the tomato sauce, parsley and sea salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until beans are tender, about 2 hours. Makes about 4 servings.

Yeast (also known as Candida yeast) are members of the fungus family; they are normal denizens of your intestinal tract. Their job is to turn you into compost when you’re dead. Candida yeast are strongly inhibited by acidity, and they are content to hide away in the nooks and crannies of your large intestine – wherever the pH is acceptably alkaline. Your main defence against them is billions of acidophilus bacteria (your good bacteria) that maintain an acid pH in your large intestine (colon), which inhibits yeast growth.

Anything that disrupts the pH of your colon and your good bacteria – such as antibiotics, mercury, antacids, chlorinated water, cortisone, etc. – allows the yeast to begin the composting process while you’re still alive. Once they are active, yeast have ways of convincing you that sugar and chocolate are necessary in your diet.

Another way the yeast can become active is when your ileocecal valve is weakened. The ileocecal valve is located between your small intestine and your large intestine. This valve is usually kept closed so that the food you’ve eaten stays in your small intestine long enough to be digested and absorbed fully. It also prevents the good micro-organisms in your large intestine from getting into your small intestine, where their waste products could easily be absorbed. As digestion and absorption are completed in your small intestine, your ileocecal valve opens, and the food passes into your large intestine or colon.

When your ileocecal valve is weakened, the billions of normally “good” bacteria that live in the large intestine get through the ileocecal valve, up into your small intestine – where they’re not supposed to be. There, they can become “Bad Guys” – they steal important nutrients like vitamin B12 and tryptophan before you have absorbed them, and they can also dump toxins into your liver. Once your good bacteria become bad, yeast soon join the party. The alkaline pH of the small intestine allows the yeast to multiply vigorously.

Your ileocecal valve can become weak when your calcium levels are low for more than five days – calcium helps to strengthen this valve. Increasing your calcium intake doesn’t necessarily solve the ileocecal valve problem, because the solution depends on whether the calcium is being absorbed by your body. Vitamin D is required for calcium absorption: it stimulates your intestinal cells to make a calcium-binding protein that dramatically increases your absorption of calcium. Vitamin D is made by your skin when exposed to the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun, and then it is stored in an inactive form in your liver.

When vitamin D is released from liver storage, your liver converts it into a weak form of vitamin D, which then activates calcium absorption to a small degree. This might be sufficient activation if you were out in the sun regularly, when your skin can make a lot of vitamin D. Your kidneys convert this weak form of vitamin D into a much stronger form that can improve calcium absorption up to 1,000 times. This strong activation of vitamin D is especially crucial for wintertime when there is little sun around to make vitamin D directly through the skin.

Your kidneys are in charge of regulating calcium levels by altering the activation of vitamin D with the changes in the seasons. Because the kidneys can’t see outside to know what the weather is like, they monitor the ions in the foods and the beverages you’re consuming. The sodium/potassium ion ratio tells the kidneys what to do with regard to the activation of vitamin D.

Your blood contains 3 percent sodium, a percentage similar to that found in the ocean and in animals. Your kidneys maintain a 50/50 ratio of sodium and potassium at all times. Excess sodium in the diet is eliminated through the kidneys, giving a warming effect to your body and making you more active, while an excess of potassium has a cooling effect, which slows you down.

All plants contain potassium; generally, the more sun they’re exposed to, the more potassium they contain. Eat a banana, which has lots of potassium, and your kidneys will think that you’re in Hawaii, and that your skin must be roasting in the sun – making vitamin D – so they stop activating vitamin D. if you’re not actually out in the sun, you could quickly lose your calcium absorption – and within five days, your ileocecal valve could be weak enough to allow your billions of good bacteria to stampede into your small intestine, where they could become Bad Guys.

A vegetarian animal on a high-potassium diet needs access to salt, while a carnivorous animal gets its salt from the 3 percent sodium found in the vegetarian animal that it eats. In the winter, an Inuit would be on a high-sodium animal-protein diet, which would tell the kidneys that the weather is not sunny, so his kidneys would activate the vitamin D much more vigorously.

If your skin is going brown from the sun, you can eat a slight excess of potassium; otherwise you should eat a slight excess of sodium. This is the basis of the concept in Asian medicine of “yin and yang” – warming and cooling. Even though most Asians don’t have high-calcium dairy products in their traditional diets, they generally have much lower incidences of dental cavities and osteoporosis than do Westerners who use dairy – and who also eat a lot of fresh fruit, juices, and salads, even in winter.

The ileocecal valve problem is commonly seen in PEOPLE WHO EAT TOO WELL! That is, they consume too many foods and drinks high in potassium, and don’t consume enough sodium in the form of animal protein or salt. This confuses the kidneys into assuming they are in the hot sun of mid-summer, so they deactivate vitamin D.

While the kidneys’ activation of vitamin D is crucial to getting calcium from the gut to the blood, it is vitamin K that delivers calcium from the blood into the bone. Vitamin K also prevents calcium from sticking in the arteries – thereby reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Vitamin K is found in leafy greens; cooking them slightly and salting them will help prevent ileocecal valve problems when you’re not actually out in the sun.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Vitamin D is crucial for the absorption of calcium. If you’re out in the sunshine and your skin is exposed to the UV rays of the sun, it will make vitamin D. If you’re unable to get regular sun exposure, take vitamin D as a supplement – one capsule of halibut or cod liver oil per day. These sources of vitamin D seem to be more active than the irradiated yeast used in vegetarian vitamin D supplements.
2. Vitamin D is relatively passive until it’s activated by your kidneys, which change the activation of vitamin D as the weather changes. Sodium in the diet tells the kidneys it’s not sunny, so they activate vitamin D – while potassium tells the kidneys it is sunny, so they don’t activate vitamin D. So, eat according to the climate in which you are living.

If you eat animal products, you get adequate sodium; if you eat vegetable products, you need to add salt. Unrefined sea salt carries myriad trace minerals that buffer the potential side-effects of pure sodium chloride. Salt, however, including most sea salts, has had these important trace minerals stripped off and sold to the industrial mineral market. The salt I recommend now is Nature’s Cargo™ Sea Salt (www.naturescargo.ca), Allenford, Ont (1 888 725 8386).

Co-enzyme Q₁₀ (CoQ₁₀) is a fat-soluble, vitamin-like substance found in the mitochondria of virtually all cells in your body. It’s other name, ubiquinone, comes from the word ubiquitous, which means “existing everywhere.” 

Mitochondria are your cells’ power producers and CoQ₁₀ is essential for the production of ATP, the energy currency molecule of all cells. It’s crucial for the health of all organs and tissues and is particularly important in areas of your body that require high cellular energy, such as your heart, liver and kidneys. In addition to supplying energy, CoQ₁₀ is a powerful antioxidant, thereby helping to prevent free radicals from damaging healthy cells. 

Clinical studies have shown CoQ₁₀ to be beneficial to the nervous system and it promotes cardiovascular health. Research indicates that this nutrient is deficient in heart failure and it can help maintain normal levels of blood pressure. CoQ10 can improve gum and oral health and is being studied for its role in other areas such as the treatment of cancer. 

Although the body produces CoQ₁₀ and it’s available in some foods, these levels often don’t meet the body’s requirements and supplementation may be necessary. Most CoQ₁₀ supplements on the market are in the form of ubiquinone. Your body must convert ubiquinone into ubiquinol, the more active form of this nutrient. Unfortunately, as you age, your body’s levels of CoQ₁₀ decline and its ability to convert ubiquinone to ubiquinol also diminishes, so for certain people it’s better to supplement with ubiquinol rather than CoQ₁₀.

It’s important to start your day with a healthy breakfast; however, many people say that they don’t have time in the morning. So now there’s no excuse. The ingredients for this recipe can be put into a slow cooker (also known as a crock pot) with very little effort and in as little as 15 minutes before you go to bed at night. You’ll wake up to a hearty, healthy and creamy oatmeal that tastes as good as it smells.

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) coconut oil or butter
• 1 cup (250 ml) large flake (steel cut) oats
• 3 cups (750 ml) filtered water
• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
• 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml) cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon (1 ml) unprocessed sea salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) chopped walnuts (optional) 

Use the coconut oil or butter to coat the inside of the slow cooker. Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir well. Cover and cook on the low setting for 6 to 7 hours. Serve as is or with your favourite type of milk. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Notes:

• Be sure to use large flake (steel cut) oats; don’t substitute quick oats or the consistency will be like mush.
• Any leftovers can be refrigerated and quickly reheated on the stove in a saucepan with a bit of your favourite type of milk.
• See this month’s Health Tip for info about slow cookers.

Slow Cookers—Convenient, Time-Saving Appliances

Slow cookers, also known as crock pots, are small electrical kitchen appliances that are great for those who don’t have a lot of time for cooking healthy meals. Typical slow cookers consist of a heating unit on the bottom with a heavy stoneware or ceramic bowl in which the food is cooked. With the more modern slow cookers, the stoneware bowl is removable, which makes it easier for serving food and for cleaning.

One of the best things about using a slow cooker is that you add all your ingredients to it, turn it on and have your dinner ready when you get home from work or once you’re finished other activities, which means less time in the kitchen. Many recipes can be put together the night before and refrigerated in the stoneware bowl. Then all you have to do is insert it into the base in the morning and turn it on. You can also use it to cook healthy oatmeal ready for your breakfast when you wake up—see this month’s recipe for Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal.

Unlike other cooking methods which can dry out the food, slow cooking adds moisture; so it allows you to prepare foods with minimal amounts of added fat because the natural juices from the vegetables and meats are retained. And unlike an oven, the slow cooker uses less electricity and is handy to use during hot weather when you don’t want to turn on your oven and make your kitchen even hotter.

Slow cookers can be used for making many different types of dishes including casseroles, soups, stews, roasts, beans, grains, vegetables and even desserts. Using a slow cooker is easy so you don’t have to have a lot of cooking experience. There are many cookbooks on the market for slow cookers or you can surf the internet for recipes. Just be sure to adapt the recipes to incorporate the principles of the Eating Alive Program.

If you’re one of those people who are struggling to lose weight, even though you’re exercising regularly and eating healthy, you may need to make some changes to your sleep habits. Many people are unaware of the correlation between their weight and the quality and amount of sleep they’re getting. Recent studies have shown that inadequate or insufficient sleep affects a number of hormones in your body which can play a role in gaining body fat, as well as contribute to other health issues.

Melatonin and growth hormone are what Dr. Matsen refers to as your body’s repair crews which do the majority of their work while your body is asleep at night. Melatonin is a hormone that’s responsible for promoting sleep. It’s released when you’re exposed to darkness, causing your body temperature to drop and making you feel drowsy. Melatonin gradually shuts down your adrenal glands and it’s also a powerful antioxidant, neutralizing deadly free radicals in the central nervous system and the intestinal tract. Staying up late watching TV or surfing the internet is counterproductive to getting a good night’s sleep. Besides emitting light, TVs and computers also emit electromagnetic energy, both of which negatively affect your production of melatonin. To help improve the quality of your sleep and your overall health, avoid watching TV or using your computer for a couple of hours before bed so as not to disrupt the production of this important hormone.

Growth hormone, as its name implies, is responsible for stimulating growth in children and adolescents but it also has many other effects on the body. Among other things, it improves bone density and plays an important role in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins: it promotes glucose synthesis in the liver, aids in the breakdown of fat and increases protein synthesis (and helps build muscle). Your body releases the most growth hormone while you sleep, especially during deep sleep.

Then there’s the stress hormone, cortisol, which is released by your adrenal glands. Insufficient sleep can lead to elevated cortisol levels, which increases your appetite and elevates your blood sugar and insulin levels causing your body to store fat, particularly in the abdominal area. Cortisol can also make it difficult to get to sleep and stay asleep. Both melatonin and growth hormone help to reduce the negative effects of cortisol. The adrenal glands recuperate best between 11 pm and 1 am so do them a favour and try to get to bed by 10 or 11 pm. Your body will also thank you if you establish a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, as much as possible, even on the weekends or your days off.

Two hormones that influence our eating behaviour and are affected by sleep are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and is your body’s hunger hormone. It stimulates your appetite, telling your brain that it needs food, and decreases after eating. Research shows that ghrelin may also slow down fat metabolism. Leptin is produced by your fat cells and tells your brain when you’re full and that it’s time to stop eating. When you’re sleep deprived, your levels of ghrelin increase and leptin levels decrease, which can lead to increased cravings for food and lack of satiety—not feeling full. For many of us that can mean eating larger portions and eating more often and still not feeling satisfied. And it can also mean reaching for unhealthy choices such as coffee, chocolate and sugar to give us that energy boost (albeit temporary) that we want when we’re tired.

You can see how deep, restful sleep may play a role in achieving weight/fat loss—along with healthy eating and proper exercise, of course. So if you snooze well, you may lose the unwanted pounds. For more info on sleep and tips to get a good night’s sleep, see the following articles on the Doctor’s Monthly Message page:

• February 2005 “Jeepers Creepers, We Need to Be Good Sleepers”
• January 2005 “Sleep Apnea”
• August 2007 “Sleeping Well When You’re Away From Home”
• March 2006 “Interrupted Sleep”
• June 2004 “Lavender Dreams”