What’s the deal with gluten-free and who should give it a try?

By Amy | Published May 3, 2016

Are you tired of seeing the term gluten-free everywhere these days? Isn’t it just for those with Celiac Disease? Isn’t that a rare condition?

So what’s the deal? Even 10 years ago a person following a gluten free diet could not eat out at most restaurants, and now the awareness of this ubiquitous protein is well, ubiquitous! Let’s delve into some of the questions surrounding this topic.

What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac Disease (CD) is an autoimmune condition in which a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, called gluten, creates a response by the immune system and this attacks the villi of the small intestine lining. The villi are the small finger-like projections where nutrient absorption takes place. Only some people with Celiac actually have GI symptoms. The only treatment is to avoid foods containing the gluten protein 100% of the time for life.

Who should be tested for Celiac?

To give you a picture of what Celiac Disease can look like, I’ve taken a quote from Dr. Alessio Fassino, the pioneering researcher and expert on this topic, during an interview by Chris Kresser:

“Celiac disease is a clinical chameleon, and the symptoms can really affect any organ or tissue in your body, but also they are very unspecific. It can go from a stomachache to fatigue to anemia to the tingling of your fingertips and so on and so forth, so you can imagine how many people will have these kinds of symptoms and how many of these people have been told: You know, there is nothing wrong with you if you have chronic fatigue. We’ll look into the reason why you have anemia, but we can’t find anything wrong, and you need just to take an iron supplement. When they start to learn that celiac disease can do that, they ask themselves maybe this is what is the problem. Some of these people, indeed, turn out to have celiac disease, and therefore are diagnosed and resolve the problem and so on and so forth. Some people eventually fail to be diagnosed with celiac disease because they don’t fit the criteria, but because they were desperate because nothing else explained their symptoms, they decide, despite the negative results, to try the diet no matter what. And some of them, sure enough, had their symptoms improved or completely resolved.”

If you talk to people who have been diagnosed with Celiac, then you will find that many of them did not have GI distress and their symptoms ranged all over the board.

What is Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity?

So here I want to let you know that it’s a fact that avoiding gluten is not just for CD patients. Rather, according to Dr. Alessio Fassano, Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) is “a different form of immune reaction that will create a minimal inflammation without damage of the intestine. And that caused the symptoms intestinally and extraintestinal that these people may eventually experience when ingesting gluten.”

According to some sources, NCGS is about 6 times more common than Celiac Disease.

Other Ailments that Benefit from Going Gluten-free

I won’t get into this topic too much but I do want to mention one autoimmune condition for whom the majority of sufferers find relief from going GF – Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Isabella Wentz wrote a book and has a blog and does interviews within the wellness community, and she surveyed over 2,000 Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis patients. She discovered that about 80% of those surveyed found substantial relief from their symptoms by eliminating gluten from their diets. She goes further to share that diary and soy are also majorly reactive for these autoimmune hypothyroid patients.

Is Gluten the only Problem with Wheat?

More and more research is coming out about the effects of a common pesticide on our health called glyphosate. This is the main component of Round-Up which incidentally is sprayed on wheat shortly before harvest. Scientists are trying to figure out if it’s the glyphosate or the gluten that so many people are reacting to. Tests have shown this chemical in high levels in almost every one tested.

Final Thoughts

Should we all jump on the GF bandwagon? How do you know if you have a problem with wheat or gluten? If I have a patient who’s feeling awful and who eats wheat every single day without a break, I do suggest eliminating gluten for a minimum of 30 days, and then just seeing how they feel. If there’s no relief, then fine, eat it. After all, if someone is so reliant on this one food that they cannot stop eating it for a month, then it could likely be causing at least some contribution to their symptom picture. I know for me it was a matter of drug dependence and independence, Crohn’s Disease and remission. I believe going gluten-free was a huge part of that. Tons of practitioners out there, not just me, have observed this change in our patients who go gluten-free.

I’d love to hear if going gluten-free made a positive difference for you! Please send me a message!

Posted in Functional Medicine, Tidbits | Comments Off

Poignant lessons from the bible of acupuncture

By Amy | Published May 2, 2016

(Naperville Acupuncture)

I love this quote from the first chapter of the classical foundational text of acupuncture titled The Divine Pivot (Ling Shu):

“Whether meeting it or following it, by means of one’s attention, one harmonises it.
Those who understand the way of the dynamic, will not impede it and thus it manifests.”

We – acupuncturists – must focus our attention on “it” – the qi. We must get out of its way but by learning where it wants to go and where it is, we can understand it, and facilitate a state of balance – harmony.

Here’s another profound quote from The Divine Pivot that is loud and clear:

“ The (unskilled practitioner) attends to the form (aka physical). The superior (practitioner) attends to the spirit (aka nonphysical).”

What do you gather from this? To me, it says, an acupuncturist doesn’t just stick a needle in your boo-boo – we are assessing and nuancing the unseen energetics of the body. That’s why people don’t come to me to fix a dislocated shoulder or a torn meniscus. They come to me to assist their body in regaining harmony and balance to enhance their own healing abilities. We all are born with mechanisms within us to continually heal ourselves. Every second of every day our body is rebuilding and repairing. Sometimes we sustain an injury – whether due to physical trauma or inflammatory response to our diet or environment or stress hormone overload – that finally creates an imbalance upon imbalance that makes it hard for the body to find its own homeostatic rhythm again. We often don’t see symptoms until the root cause has been actively damaging us for years.

The cool thing about Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM for short) is that we have ways to measure the state of our Qi that don’t rely on how high the pain level is or our own mental perception or even the physical manifestations. We can ask the body in it’s own language – what’s wrong? where do you need me to come in and help? That is why this medicine has endured and why it is so effective. Yet it is the burden of the practitioner to develop the skills to do this best. They don’t call it a practice for nothing! My teachers from each of my courses is a practitioner in practice – they are always practicing. All of the great practitioners and teachers are always students of this medicine. So I thank you for coming with me on this journey to discover acupuncture and it’s wonder and wisdom.

Posted in Acupuncture, My Thoughts | Tagged acupuncture, Harmony, TEAM | Comments Off

12 of My Favorite Products

By Amy | Published November 30, 2015

I enjoy sharing my experience of how to make healthy food doable. I’ve compiled a short list of the top things I think add value, flavor, and nutrition to my diet so that you can try something new that just might make changing your diet easier and more pleasant.

1. Sea Salt: I have 3-4 different types of salt in my cabinet. The 2 main brands I use are Realsalt, Celtic Sea Salt. We have a find grind of one and course of the other. I am generous in my use of salt from the earth not just for flavor but for the balanced array of additional minerals that are essential to obtain from the diet for all our biologic processes.
2. Vitamineral Greens – I hear all the time from my patients that they don’t like veggies or don’t know how to get them into their diet. Here is your answer! This product is not cheap but it is concentrated and includes herbs, sea vegetables, and healthy greens in an easy to use powder. I really like the flavor but I love vegetables. You can just add it to a smoothie or mix with juice, a nondairy milk, or water and voila – several servings of veggies down the hatch!
3.Gelatin and collagen hydrolysate – Great Lakes and Vital Protein are the 2 brands I use interchangeably. This is a very easy to digest protein powder containing all of the essential amino acids. It’s a great way to add protein to soups, smoothies, or anything. Both companies use grass-fed cows raised in South America, which is a concern for me regarding deforestation, but for those with weak or sensitive digestion it can be worth the compromise. Note that the collagen hydrolysate is the type that easily dissolves in hot or cold whereas some care to dissolve the gelatin is recommended.
4. Coconut butter – my favorite treat for satisfying the need for something sweet. So many ways to use – as a spread, as a smoothie add-in, as a coconut milk sub when stirred into water, etc.
5. Holy Mate Tea from EcoTeas – this is a mild earthy tea with tulsi, peppermint, and yerba mate. I am sensitive to caffeine and I have no reaction with this tea at all.
6. Kelp noodles – adds crunch and texture with no calories. Easy to use, just rinse in water cut and add to anything.
7. Red Boat fish sauce – no unwanted additives and no sugar – just fish and salt! Sure beats all the cheaper brands at the store. My Vietnamese friend recommends it too!
8. Vegan yogurt starter from Cultures for Health – I have been dairy free for eons, and didn’t know how to make yogurt until I found this. Super easy with just coconut milk and some gelatin to thicken. Creamy and tangy like regular yogurt. Fantastic for breakfast w/your favorite add-ons like blueberries, chia, and pumpkin seeds.
9. Veggie culture starter – I like the flavor this culture gives to my cultured veggies instead of just using sea salt.
10. Justnaturalskincare – Totally clean labels – nothing weird – truly natural – made by hand in FLorida, great skin care and hair care. We love the shampoo, conditioner, shea body butter, and several creams and lotions.
11. American Health Chewable Super Papaya Enzyme Plus – I literally feel my food digesting when I take these. Kids love them – call them minties. I keep on hand especially for eating out or if I eat a bit beyond full.
12. Wild Planet canned fish – sardines, salmon, tuna that I don’t have to worry about (compared to other brands). I keep on hand at all times for quick-to-add protein.

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Adaptogenic Herbs

By Amy | Published November 18, 2015

There is a lot of talk in the natural health world about adaptogens such as rodiola and boswellia. I’d like to provide a brief overview as the term is not self explanatory, so that you can perhaps consider supplementing with one or several to enhance your energy and clarity naturally.

Adaptogenic herbs restore overall balance and strengthen the functioning of the body as a whole without impacting the balance of an individual organ or body system. Adaptogens facilitate these changes by a wide range of actions and energetics, rather than one specific action. Adaptogens can be stimulating and/or relaxing, many help improve focus, support immune system functioning, or provide some other broad-spectrum normalizing influence on unbalanced physiological processes.
By definition, the active properties of the adaptogenic herb must be safe, non-toxic, and non-habit forming, even when taken over a long period of time. When taken daily as a tea or extract, these herbs can help improve your mental functioning and allow your body to adapt more easily to stressful situations, relieving an overactive adrenal response. However, herbs should not be used to push us beyond our limits and cannot replace the benefits of good restful sleep. These herbs are of better use to our health and healing when paired with the appropriate need or used as gentle tonics.

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The Amazing Ear – who knew!

By Amy | Published November 18, 2015

As I reflect and review what I learned this past weekend from Dr. Raphael Nogier, I am even more blown away by the beauty and complexity of the human form, and life in general. I’m sure most people realize how complex and mysterious our bodies are, but when we go back to the fundamental laws of nature that govern all life and matter, we find that healing does not have to be so frustrating and intangible as Western Medicine sometimes makes us feel when we get turned away without solutions to our ailments.

Let me tell you some very interesting facts about one small overlooked body part. The ear.

The ear has the most complex innervation of any body part.
The ear contains all 3 layers of embryologic tissue: ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm.
The size of a point in the ear is 0.2 mm. So tiny!
Many ear points consist of a Neurovascular Complex (NVC) containing an artery, a vein, a nerve, and a lymph vessel. This means they hold a direct connection to the immune and nervous and vascular systems!