Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

Picture if you will, a garden with two things growing in it: flowers and weeds. If the weeds are kept under control, they really don’t do much damage and the flowers will bloom everywhere. If, however, the garden becomes overgrown with weeds, it’s a whole different story.

Your gut is exactly like that garden, but instead of being populated with flowers and weeds, it’s populated with what’s poetically called “gut flora,” the many organisms which reside in the intestinal tract.

In your gut, the part of the flowers is played by beneficial bacteria called probiotics, while the part of the weeds is played by a nasty little microbe known as Candida albicans —Candida for short.

Candida is actually a fungus, but in “normal” circumstances it lives in peace with the rest of the gut flora and isn’t much cause for concern. Unfortunately, this peaceful coexistence is often disrupted by a number of factors, resulting in an overgrowth of Candida which can wreak havoc everywhere in the body, affecting your immune system, hormone balance and even your thought processes.¹

Most common symptoms of Candida overgrowth include bloating, constipation or diarrhea, fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, sugar cravings and, most famously, “yeast infections.”

The brilliant sunshine streaming through my window reminds me that we can now spend more time outdoors. Just in time, too. After the gray winter doldrums, especially in northern latitudes, say above the axis between Boston and northern California, there is a silent, invisible epidemic: vitamin D deficiency. This is a major component of widespread osteoporosis and resultant hip and wrist fractures that orthopaedists are called upon to treat.

You see, as important as calcium intake is to your bone health and integrity, it can’t get into your bloodstream and your bones without vitamin D. This essential vitamin is necessary to allow calcium ions in food to cross the intestinal wall.

Vitamin D is really not a vitamin though in the usual sense of the word. In fact, it is a steroid hormone, with an amazing array of bioactive properties.^2,4 More recently discovered functions of this exotic vitamin include:

• Regulation of a number of genetic functions that help to reduce cell proliferation (dangerous cell growth).
• Promotion of cell differentiation (transformation of different cell types).
• Prevention of cancerous transformation and modulation of apoptosis (cell death). This means that vitamin D seems to prevent and even treat a variety of cancers, including breast, colon, prostate, lung, and lymphoma.¹

And that’s in addition to its regular functions like maintaining serum calcium and phosphate levels, promoting the normal mineral growth of bone, and preventing tetany (spastic contraction of muscles due to low levels of calcium).

It seemed like it happened every time, and for the longest while I didn’t think I could do anything about it. I’d be going along feeling fine and healthy. Then I’d have a critically ill patient under my care. After a few days of stress and interrupted night’s sleep, WHAM — I’d come down with a heck of a cold.

At first, I didn’t know what specific steps anyone could take to keep their immune function at an optimal level.

As a physician, I was of course aware of the components of the immune system and their functions. However, like many aspects of wellness, traditional medical training doesn’t emphasize how we can support immune function in normal day-to-day life.

When I starting exploring complementary medical treatments, I was surprised at how much research had been done in this area. Once I started applying what I learned, those stress-related colds became a thing of the past. I’d like to share some of what I learned about building up a healthy immune system and fighting off those nasty bugs with you now.

Our immune system is a complex, interacting web of chemical and cellular components that serves to protect us against potential invaders such as bacteria, viruses and cancer cells. Although we often talk about immune “boosting,” what we really want is a perfectly balanced immune system (an overly active immune system can damage the body, but that’s another story).

A healthy lifestyle supports vitality, including immune health. It’s the foundation of any wellness program.

Summer is upon us and for many folks that means spending time outdoors, hiking, camping, walking and exploring forests and wooded areas. It also means working and playing in your own backyard.

No matter where you live in the continental United States, you are at risk for the tick-borne illness known as Lyme disease. Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Deer ticks harbor these bacteria and spread it when feeding on animals and humans. People in the Northeast, Midwest and Northwest are at highest risk, but these ticks can be found in any grassy or heavily wooded area — even your own backyard!

Signs and Symptoms
Most cases of Lyme disease start with a rash that looks like a bump, and then grows into something like a bull’s eye, as illustrated below.

© DermAtlas; http://www.DermAtlas.org.

This rash is called erythema migrans, and can start where the tick bite occurred. It happens in 70-80% of Lyme disease cases. Flu-like symptoms can also occur, such as fever, chills, fatigue, body aches and headache. The symptoms and pattern of Lyme disease can vary from person to person because the illness can affect many different body systems.

If you develop a rash and flu-like symptoms and feel that you may have contracted Lyme disease, you should seek medical attention. At this point in time, treatment is easy and can prevent the serious and sometimes severe complications of Lyme disease. Your doctor can fully evaluate and examine you for the illness. There is a blood test that can check to see if you have Lyme disease, but this test does take a few weeks after exposure to show a positive result.

The recent outbreak of swine flu is causing widespread panic and concern among many people, but by all indications, it is no worse than the seasonal flu that usually strikes every winter.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has determined that the current strain of swine flu is caused by a new type of influenza A virus. There are four viral sub-types, one found in humans, one in birds and two in swine. The swine sub-type is causing the flu in humans in the United States. It is spread from pigs to humans and then from humans to humans.

The CDC believes that the current outbreak of swine flu (officially called the H1N1 flu) started in March 2009 in certain areas of Mexico. Mexico is currently reporting the largest number of cases at 727, with 26 deaths confirmed at this time. There is one confirmed death in the United States and 403 total cases. These cases are spread among 38 states in the continental US.

People do not normally get the swine flu. The CDC has determined that this swine sub-type is contagious and is spreading from human to human, through large airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets contain the virus and spread the illness fairly easily.

Have you been exposed to swine flu? New York, Texas, California, Delaware and Arizona are the states reporting the most number of cases. Recent travel to Mexico and contact with an infected person there are also risk factors.

Signs and Symptoms of Swine Flu
The signs and symptoms of swine flu are:

Part 2 of a 2-part article

Natural Topical Therapies

Part 1 of a 2-part article

The real truth is that unless you live in a bubble, it is impossible to avoid germs. And, germs, bacteria, viruses, fungi, are EVERYWHERE.

Did you ever have a wound or sore that simply does not heal no matter what you try? Perhaps it’s even been treated by a physician, but still remains.

This type of wound is characterized by skin deterioration to the point where the underlying tissue is exposed. Such wounds are also called sores or ulcers and can have a variety of causes. But they all have one thing in common – prompt treatment is important to prevent infection and further deterioration of the surrounding area.

Today I want to talk about an issue that ties in with your gut health (the topic of my last article) — gluten sensitivity, which is sometimes also referred to as gluten intolerance. Gluten as you may remember is the grain protein found in wheat, rye, and barley that causes gas, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other seemingly unrelated symptoms such as headache, joint aches, depression, anxiety, and fatigue in sensitive individuals. All these symptoms arise as a result of an immune system reaction to gluten.

Many consumers have become increasingly aware of this issue and have been trying out gluten-free diets in such record numbers that the medical community has been questioning what in the world is going on that so many people think they are gluten intolerant.¹

The obvious answer is that maybe they really are. And the problem is that currently the only form of gluten sensitivity that is medically recognized is Celiac disease, an advanced form in which the immune cells cause damage to the intestinal villi. But the fact is, gluten sensitivity symptoms can range from a broad spectrum of fairly mild (but bad enough to affect a person’s quality of life), to very severe, like that seen in Celiac disease.

The spike in individuals seeking gluten-free diets shows that we are seeing another legitimate medical condition (gluten-intolerance) in which mainstream medicine’s diagnosis and treatment is inadequately dealing with people’s actual symptoms and experiences. To put it another way, patients are currently ahead of their doctors in dealing with the reality of gluten intolerance.

For the last several years I have been emphasizing the importance of reducing belly fat, but just as important is getting one’s gut into shape on the inside. What I’m talking about is intestinal health.

Antibiotics and probiotics are two key players here. Antibiotics wipe out friendly flora in our intestines. This was clearly demonstrated in a study of patients taking the popular broad spectrum antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, commonly known as “Cipro”, which wiped out about 30% of the patients’ good bacteria population. After treatment, it took up to four weeks to re-establish the original level of healthy bacteria, but some strains took up to six months or longer to re-establish.¹