When you put these bad foods into your body and the body is missing the micro-nutrients, many times you end up with the following conditions/disease:
Constipation – unfortunately, this is an issue that many women deal with on a regular basis, but one that is typically relatively simple to resolve. The gut needs certain micro-nutrients, like fiber and magnesium. It can be more complicated but generally, once one or both of these nutrients are added, constipation becomes an issue in the past.
Diarrhea – chronic diarrhea is typically a condition whose cause is buried in the lining of the gut. Typical causes are food sensitivities, parasites, as well as inflammation; however, it can be more complicated like a weakened immune system that can’t protect the gut.
Leaky gut – a condition when the lining of the gut is broken down, thus allowing bacteria, viruses, parasites and other things to get into your bloodstream, thus contaminating the entire body.
Food Sensitivities – caused when things that shouldn’t cross the lining of the gut, get into the bloodstream and set up what is called an antigen-antibody reaction that will actually cause inflammation and lead to further health issues.
Skin rashes, allergic reactions – the lining of the inside of the GI system – the cells – are made of a particular tissue type and this is the exact same tissue, as the skin. Thus when something attaches to the lining of the GI cells, it can actually appear as a skin rash because the body is simply attacking all the proteins that look the same
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn’s – all of these conditions/diseases are irritations of the GI system and they are all caused by a variety of insults. The question is what is causing the irritation? Once you find the cause, remove that cause and reduce the inflammation, the symptoms resolve.
Sugar Cravings – this is generally as simple as changing what you eat. Our bodies crave sugar as a means of getting glucose into the cells for fuel. The reason for the cravings is because the person is consuming too many simple carbohydrates – which are bad foods – when they should be consuming complex carbohydrates – which are good foods. When the body gets what it needs (in this case, a fuel source that last a long time), then the cravings simply go away.
GERD – this is an irritation of the upper part of the GI system, the esophagus and stomach. Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease can have a variety of causes, but in general, especially for those over the age of 50, it is generally caused by too little stomach acid and not excess acid, as TV commercials would have you believe. The reason is that there is not a single cell in the body that doesn’t age and with age comes a reduction of function. So if all cells age and reduce in function, how can the cells in the stomach start producing too much acid? They can’t.
So what is causing the symptoms of GERD like gas, belching, bloating and that very uncomfortable feeling for hours after you eat? The answer is too little acid. With too little acid, the food you ate 2 hours ago is sitting in your stomach at 98.6 degrees (body temperature) and it is rotting. Rotting food gives off gas, and that gas causes belching and bloating. The answer to this condition is generally quite simple.
Weight Loss – this can be a difficult condition to address and first must be looked at from a medical perspective for diseases like cancer. Medical doctors must be allowed the first opportunity to try and determine the cause of weight loss; however, once all known medical conditions have been ruled out and there seems to be no answer, that is when Functional Medicine can step in, to try and determine the underlying cause or the reason the cells are not retaining mass.
Weight Gain – there are many reasons for a person to gain weight, from too much food intake, to the wrong type of food, too little exercise, etc. Many times patients have tried to address all of these issues, but they still gain weight. In that case, we need to look for the proper cellular function of the adrenal glands, normal thyroid levels, as well as the GI system. Special tests can be utilized in order to determine good cellular function and try to determine the underlying cause for weight gain.
