A Super Way to Get Your Good Bacteria, Vitamin C and Vitamin K in One Food.

Nutritional deficiencies are significant with those with celiac or gluten sensitivity diseases. And many have had to take antibiotics and the bio film of the digestive system is an unhealthy mix of organisms and needs to be coaxed back to health. I recommend eating nutrient dense foods and here is a food that has lots of vitamin C and K, good for prevention of illnesses and probiotics.

I know, when I mention that super food is Sauerkraut, many of you will turn up your nose.
But I'm going to tempt you to try home made or naturally fermented Sauerkraut found at health food stores. I recently started making some at home and find it easy. I find it quite sweet with a slight hint of sour. If it's too sour one could rinse it off a bit. But not too much because you don't want to wash away the good bacteria.

And you can even make chocolate cake from it!

Linda Joyce Forristal, CTA, MTA writes in her article on the Weston A Price Foundation web site called
Sauerkraut: The Miracle Cabbage :


With winter upon us, I think it's a good time to talk about sauerkraut--one of man's most ingenious ways of enjoying the garden bounty during the months when fresh fruits and vegetables are unavailable. In my mind, the miracle of sauerkraut is that the brine does not have to be inoculated with bacteria for the process to work; the best sauerkraut is made simply with shredded cabbage and salt that is magically inoculated with atmospheric bacteria.

According to Harold McGee, the author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, the ideal salinity for sauerkraut brine is 2.25 percent, with temperatures between 65-70ºF. These conditions produce the best environment for a bacterium called Leuconostioc mesenteroides to grow and produce lactic acid. When the acidity of the brine reaches about 1 percent, another bacterium, Lactobacillus plantarum, takes over to finish the job. The end result is tangy, crunchy bits of cabbage to top off a sandwich or round off a heavy meal.
A new book on sauerkraut, A Passion for Sauerkraut: The Humble Vegetable for Good Health by Sam Hofer, (Hofer Publishers, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2001) is full of interesting sauerkraut lore and fascinating recipes, including one for Sauerkraut Chocolate Cake!




The recipe can easily be doubled.

Sauerkraut, from Nourishing Traditions published by New Trends- Promotes Weston A Price philosophy.

1 half a head of cabbage shredded ( I use the food processor)

1 TBsp of sea salt.

1 tsp caraway seed (optional)

4 TBsp of whey ( optional, if used, use 50% less salt)

Crush or pound the cabbage with a meat hammer with the salt until there is a little bit of liquid. Transfer to a mason jar that can be sealed and punch down the cabbage so that it is covered with a layer of liquid. It should be at least 1 inch below the opening of the jar. Seal and leave at room temperature for 4-5 days before transferring to cold storage. The sauerkraut may be eaten immediately, but it improves with age. http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/612-sauerkraut-miracle-cabbage?



Best of all sauerkraut is nutrient dense and has a strong reputation for preventing illness. With the erosion of our soils and the gradual decline in the nutrient levels in our foods, it's always best to look for nutrient dense foods.

Read more about it's use for preventing illness and death here.

To your health
Dr. Barbara

Avoid Vitamin D Deficiency at All Costs.

Vitamin Vitamin D3 deficiency is 100% in persons who are celiac or gluten sensitivity unless there is active ingestion of Vitamin D3 or active exposure to the vitamin D3 making sunlight- UV B light, which above the 49th parallel is only significant from late May to mid September.

 It is very important to keep your Vitamin D3 blood levels up because Vitamin D3 controls as many as 2000 of our 20,000 genes. ( Which are controlled by their on-off switches or epigenetic sites. Each gene may have as many as 100,000 epigenetic sites.The other major controller of epigenetic sites are the agents of methylation, like folate ).

Vitamin D3 deficiency is related to the onset of autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease, diabetes type 1, and many others. Deficiency is related to poor immune system and the inability to fight viruses and bacteria, like colds and flu's but also supplementing with Vitamin D aids in the cure of TB with anti-TB medications.

Deficiency is related to increased risk of cancer,depression, schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions, neurological conditions and heart disease.

Slowly, administrative bureaus are recognizing the importance of getting more vitamin D3 both from food but also from supplements and sun. And recognizing it's safety in high doses up to 11,000 iu's a day (especially when combined with vitamin A and K). A great source of up to date information on Vitamin D3 is the newsfile Vitamin D Council.

Here they report on The European Food Safety Authority's recommendation to increase the their tolerable upper limit for Vitamin D to 4,000 iu's in adults and in teens above age 11.If put into policy and foods have more Vitamin D, and people will ingest more vitamin D, there will be less deficiency overall.
Vitamin D Council >
News


European Food Safety Authority ups vitamin D upper limit

14 August 2012


The European Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies has recently increased their tolerable upper limit for vitamin D. Following a request from the European Commission, the panel took a look at research to date to re-evaluate if a change in the upper limit was necessary.

In result, the panel raised the upper limit to 4,000 IU of vitamin D/day for adults and teenagers older than eleven, despite finding no evidence of hypercalcemia or hypercalcuria in supplementation up to 11,000 IU/day. The panel cited that they did not want to raise the upper limit higher for the time being in order to take “into account uncertainties associated with these studies.”

Children between 1-10 years old, the panel proposed an upper limit of 2000 IU/day. For infants under one year old, the upper limit was set at 1,000 IU/day.

Their scientific opinion can be found in full in the European Food Safety Journal.

Source:

EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. Scientific Opinion on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of vitamin D. EFSA Journal, 2012.">">

Page last edited: 14 December 2012

How does one know if one has a blood level of Vitamin D above 100 nmol/L?
You don't know unless you get a blood test. Ask for one or get one from the Vitamin D Council web page.


To your health!
Dr. Barbara

GAPS Help from Sarabeth at Life is a Palindrome

Now that you have decided to do the GAPS diet or you are looking for some help, here is a great website by Sarabeth at Life is a Palindrome. It will give you some ideas for making menue choices. And time and money saving tips. 

I think everyone who starts GAPS, starts by being completely overwhelmed.......then it gets better.

From Sarabeth:
What We Eat - With Recipes!
Mar 07, 2013


What We Eat Now - With Recipes!
March 2013

When we first started the Specific Carbohydrate/Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet in 2010, I had a bookcase full of vegetarian recipes, a burgeoning career as a vegetarian chef…and not a clue how to cook (let alone eat) a chicken. The only thing I knew how to ferment was sourdough bread. And for many more reasons than the sheer cooking workload, I was completely overwhelmed.

To your Health

Dr. Barbara

Don't Let Them Pull Out Your Teeth!

Because tooth and gum disease is ubiquitous with gluten sensitive individuals, many people have to make serious decisions about the care of their teeth. 

Here James Hepburn relates his story about gum disease and has given permission to print his whole article. His story is shocking but very common.

The moral of his example is do your homework, and find out if there are low invasive alternatives and more natural treatments. To do this, find articles on the internet or go to legitimate websites like www.GAPSdiet.com or www.westonaprice.org especially http://www.westonaprice.org/dentistry. Or, for dental problem, contact a biological dentist.

For this or any other health problem, contact a physician who does natural, integrative or functional medicine, or the head of your local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation chapter.

 

THU JAN 31, 2013 AT 11:20 AM PST
Don't Let Them Pull Out Your Teeth

byJames HepburnFollow



UPDATE: You have my full permission to reprint, distribute, or in any way copy and reuse this post in its entirety. In fact, I strongly encourage you to do so.

I've been putting off sharing this story for months now because I'm not wild about discussing a personal medical condition publicly. But the information I am about to tell you could have a monumental impact on millions of people's lives. If that sounds exaggerated to you, read further and you will see why.

And if you, or anyone you know, suffers from gum disease (according to the Center for Disease Control, half of all Americans do - some studies put that number up to 75%) then you need to send them this story. It will probably save them their teeth, a lot of money, and a huge amount of suffering.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with an advanced case of gum disease. I was showingpocket depths of 9s and 10s. Many of my teeth were actually loose. And it had become painful to eat certain foods.

My periodontist told me that in order to stop it from getting worse, I had to have as many as seven teeth pulled. Seven teeth! And, even with my insurance, it was going to cost many thousands of dollars.

The implications of this were devastating to me. Life-changing in some respects. As anyone with false teeth will tell you, it's not a happy situation. From limiting what foods you eat, to actually altering your social behavior - including the way you smile - losing your teeth is no small affair.

Curiously, during one of my many consultations, it was explained to me that gum disease is actually the result of a bacterial infection. So my first thought was, surely, there must be an antibiotic treatment. But my periodontist said no. Sometimes they use a topical antibiotic, like a gel, to help arrest the spread of infection, but there was no pill you could take like you would for, say, strep throat.

So, I sought a second opinion. Then another. All had the same bad news. 'There is no antibiotic treatment and we're going to have to rip out your teeth with pliar-like things and charge you big bucks to do it.' Or something to that effect.

I was incredulous. What century is this? How, in this day and age, could we be condemned to such barbary? Don't we have antibiotics for everything? Surely someone was at least working on it. So I decided to search scientific journals for "antibiotic treatment for gum disease."

Immediately, I found this: The nonsurgical treatment of patients with gum disease: results after five years. by Walter J. Loesche et al. (link)

I am not exaggerating when I say my heart jumped a beat. Could there be hope? I clicked on the link and saw this:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In a previous study involving patients seen at the dental clinic of the Detroit Receiving Hospital, the authors found that 87 percent of teeth initially recommended for surgery or extraction were spared those treatments by a combination of debridement [cleaning] and short-term usage of antimicrobial agents. The objective of the present study was to determine how long the surgery-sparing benefits of less invasive treatment would persist.

METHODS: Ninety of these patients were scheduled for maintenance therapy at three-month intervals over a five-year period. They were evaluated periodically for surgical needs by a clinician who was not aware of the nonsurgical gum treatment the patient had received.

RESULTS: The initial treatment benefits were sustained, as the number of teeth needing periodontal surgery or extraction was 0.06 teeth per patient after 1.1 year, 0.22 after 2.3 years, 0.51 after 3.6 years and 0.86 after 5.1 years.

CONCLUSIONS: A noninvasive treatment regimen for an anaerobic infection in teeth seriously compromised by gum disease resulted in a reduced need for surgery or tooth extraction for at least five years after completion of the initial treatment. [Emphasis added]Could this be true? And who is this Walter Loesche guy? And if it really works, how come three different periodontists didn't appear to have heard of him or his work? So I looked him up. According to his bio at the University of Michigan:

He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1957, his D.M.D. from Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1961, a periodontal certificate from Harvard-Forsyth in 1964, and his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967.

...

He has published three textbooks, over 170 peer-reviewed articles, and over 50 chapters and invited reviews. He has "served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Periodontal Research, Clinical Microbiology, the Journal of Oral Microbiology and Immunology, and Anaerobe and served as president of the.I've since learned that

"he was appointed the Marcus L Ward Professor in Dentistry and received honorary degrees from the University of Goteborg, Sweden, the University of Ghent, Belgium and the University of Turku, Finland. In 1988 Dr. Loesche served as the president of the American Association of Dental Research and received the Distinguished Scientist Award in 1994."The more I learned about Dr. Loesche, the more I realized that he wasn't some obscure researcher, but one of the most renowned scientists in his field. And the more I learned about his published work, the more bizarre it became that none of my periodontists were familiar with his antibiotic approach to treatment of gum disease.

As I said, one of my periodontists told me that gum disease was the result of a bacterial infection. But, it actually turns out, that my periodontist probably knew that because of the work of Walter Loesche. He was the one who, more than any other, led this field of research in identifying gum disease as a bacterial infection and pioneered its treatment as such.

Regardless, I can't express how much hope this gave me. Here was a scientist with bona fides out the yahoo who claimed that he had successfully treated gum disease with drugs. I emailed Dr. Loesche at once. I explained my situation, and asked if he could recommend a drug treatment. This is what he told me to do:

* Get your teeth cleaned (in my case this involved a full scaling which I had already had done).

* Then get your Dr. to prescribe Azithromycin 500mg.

* Take one a day for 3 days. Then stop for 4 days. Then resume for 3 more days.

So I called periodontist #3 and told her about the Loesche treatment, sent her supporting documents from the Journal of the American Dental Association, among others, and her response was very positive. "I'll try anything." she said. So she wrote the script and scheduled me to return in thirty days for a progress report.

"It's a miracle!" Those were her exact words. "I've never seen this before."

As I write this, two years have passed since contacting Walter Loesche and taking Azithromycin. On my last regular checkup my dentist informed me I have no signs of active gum disease. I still have all my teeth. My pocket depths went from 9s and 10s down to 3s and 4s (still not great, but not in crisis either). My teeth are no longer remotely loose or sore. And I can eat anything I want.

This is Where it Gets Political

I find it simply impossible to believe that the periodontal establishment is unaware of the breakthrough of antibiotic treatment following the work of Dr. Loesche and others. The groundbreaking study I linked to above, which proved the superior effectiveness of antibiotic treatment, was published in 2002. There were other such studies, published in top journals, showing similar results going back into the early 1990s.

And yet, yesterday, in preparing to write this post, I contacted eight periodontists' offices in my area. In each, I spoke to the senior hygienist on staff. And each denied ever hearing of systemic antibiotic treatment.

I personally was was quoted roughly $12,000 to get my teeth extracted. [Edit: As a commenter pointed out, you can get teeth pulled for a lot cheaper. I called my periodonist's office and his assistant suggested that price probably included bone grafts to prepare for implants and may have included some bridge work.].

My antibiotic treatment cost me $15.

Is this why none of the periodontists I saw knew about antibiotic treatment? The tooth extraction business is big bucks. So is the tooth replacement business. Depending on which study you cite, Americans alone spend tens of billions of dollars on periodontal treatment each year - most of that getting teeth extracted and replaced with dentures etc.

Walter Loesche, in one of his papers, spoke of not just an alternative treatment, but a new paradigm - one that replaces the barbaric method of removing patients' teeth with one that treats the underlying cause.

What Dr. Loesche didn't mention, however, was that this new paradigm threatens to practically collapse a multibillion dollar industry. If gum disease can be caught in the early stages, and treated with antibiotics prescribed by a normal dentist (which it can), then why do we even periodontists?

So while I'm not suggesting that there's some plot among the periodontal establishment to suppress the use of antibiotic treatment, there certainly appears to be little incentive for them to embrace it.

As such, perhaps it will take the power of the internet to inform patients that there's an antibiotic treatment to gum disease. And while there's no guarantee that everyone's treatment will be as successful as mine has been, everyone should at least have the opportunity to try it first. Pulling out someone's teeth should be an absolute last resort after all other treatments have been applied.

So, again, if you know someone with gum disease, and you almost certainly do, please send them this article, have them talk it over with their dentist, periodontist, or doctor, and help them save their teeth. The periodontal industry can find another way to make money.

More Information

For further information on the work of Walter Loesche and colleagues at his U. Michigan page, go here and click on the lefthand menu "Publications."

Here is a groundbreaking paper from 2001 that is not behind a paywall. According to Google Scholar it has been cited 192 times.

Anyone seeking more information may also just search Pubmed or Google Scholar for "antibiotic treatment periodontal disease" without the quotation marks.

Similarly, a normal Google search for "Walter Loesche" without the quotes will also immerse you in a sea of useful information.



ORIGINALLY POSTED TO JAMES HEPBURN ON THU JAN 31, 2013 AT 11:20 AM PST.
ALSO REPUBLISHED BY J TOWN.

TAGS
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by TaboolaFROM THE WEB

Waffles For Shrove Tuesday by Beyond Celiac

Suzanne at Beyond Celiac has a great waffle recipe. It's a gluten free Paleo recipe (which fits the GAPS diet).

This is a picture of her heirloom waffle iron.

Lots of people will be having pancakes or waffles today. If you are try this recipe. It is good for any day, of course.

To your health
Dr.Barbara

Delivery, Breast Feeding Effect Type of Newborn's Gut Microbiota

Now we have more proof that the gut and the organisms living in it, collectively called the "super organ", is the source of health. Bad gut bugs, bad health.

The mental health issues and symptoms and illness that occur with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity occur from the damaged bowel and the abnormal organisms that live there. 
If you have illness from gluten sensitivity, there are unhealthy organisms growing in the bowel. It is important to heal the gut by eliminating bad organisms in the bowel and encourage healthy probiotics, to become well and ameliorate symptoms especially the ones not related to the bowel.

To heal the gut and restore normal gut microbiota, I suggest a Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet which starves the bad and encourages the healthy gut bacteria.  In practice, it really works.

Scientists are still trying to figure out for sure, how the bad bacteria colonize the bowel of a newborn.There are previous studies that show C/S births, mother taking the birth control pill and formula feeding of infants leads to abnormal gut bacteria. See my article called "Baby inherits gut dysbiosis from Mother.

Here another study reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, February 11, 2013,  confirms infants born by caesarean delivery lacked a group of bacteria common in the stool of infants delivered vaginally, even if they were breastfed. The study suggests how the choice of feeding formula could explain disease - susceptibility later in life. 

One very disturbing finding is the over representation of C. Difficile in the stool of formula fed infants. C. Difficile is linked to asthmas, allergy and mental health issues.

Read an excerpt from CBCNEWS:

"Decisions regarding C-section delivery will influence the development of the infant's gut microbiome, with potential lifelong impact on health," study author Dr. Anita Kozyrskyj, of the University of Alberta said in an email.

It could be that C-section physically prevents newborns from acquiring microbes they would during vaginal births, Kozyrskyj said.

C. difficile bacteria that are associated with infections, allergy and asthma were over represented in infants fed formula.

"Infants born by caesarean delivery are at increased risk of asthma, obesity and Type 1 diabetes, whereas breastfeeding is variably protective against these and other disorders," researchers wrote.

"Our findings are particularly timely given the recent affirmation of the gut microbiota as a "super organ" with diverse roles in health and disease, and the increasing concern over rising cesarean delivery and insufficient exclusive breastfeeding in Canada."

If you have gluten sensitivity, and health problems, even if it is ever so slight, go on a GAPS diet.This diet has been research and successfully used by pioneers like Dr. Haas (1950's), Elaine Gottschall (1970's-2000's) who called it the specific carbohydrate diet. And fine tuned with modern understandings of nutritional sciences by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. There are many imitators.  

That's the start, then find and correct nutritional deficiencies, get your Homocysteine level to 8 or below, and get your vitamin D levels in the anti-viral, anti-cancer range which is over 120 nmol/l. And find and treat auto-immune disorders like hypothyroidism.

To your Health

Dr. Barbara

Celiac Caused By Other Proteins in Grains- GLO-3A

There has been vigorous scientific study of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity in the last few years. These studies continue to confirm that there may be as many of 400 different proteins, non-gluten, in grains that cause celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. And by extension, to heal, it confirms the use of a specific carbohydrate diet or Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet which is free of grains.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, the researchers studied a non-gluten storage protein in wheat, Glo-3A ( antibodies for Glo-3A are found in persons suffering from celiac disease).Thinking that these antibodies could be used to diagnose celiac disease, they found that they could infact diagnose celiac disease earlier than using the traditional serum TtG IgA.

Dr. Osborne at Glutenfreesociety, writes about the immune response to toxic grain proteins and about this study of Glo-3A in children at high risk of developing celiac disease:

Immune Response to Non Gluten Protein

The protein is called Glo-3A. It is a non gluten storage protein found in wheat.

Production of antibodies to Glo-3A is being studied as a marker to help in earlier diagnosis of gluten issues. In a study of children at high risk of developing the celiac disease, which attacks cells lining the small intestine, high levels of antibodies to Glo-3A were detectable in blood earlier than antibodies to tissue transglutaminase (TTG), a serologic marker frequently used to diagnose celiac disease.

“The present study shows that higher levels of Glo-3A antibodies are associated with celiac disease both at the time of clinical diagnosis and before that point,”

Glo-3A antibody production in the celiac group appeared, on average, about 2 years before TTG antibodies were detectable, at around age 3 versus age 5 for TTG antibodies.

The researchers in this study suspect that Glo-3A antibody production is a biomarker of impaired immune tolerance and increased gut permeability, i.e., celiac disease.
When diagnosing celiac disease, health care providers typically screen patients’ blood for the presence of TTG antibodies. TTG is an enzyme that alters the gliadin molecule by deamidating glutamine residues; these residues in turn bind to antigen presenting cells and activate T cells, leading to damage to the finger like cells called villi that line the small intestine. Over time, the cellular damage, known as villous atrophy, leads to malabsorption of food, gastrointestinal bloating, and diarrhea. But by the time TTG antibodies are detectable, villous atrophy has often already begun—prompting scientists to look for diagnostic tools that allow earlier diagnosis.

“These results may indicate that the immune pathology and subsequent damage that are characteristic of celiac disease start early in life”

You may have initially got better eating a traditional gluten free diet only to plateau or been told you have another autoimmune condition. Traditional gluten free diets that are not grain free, still expose you to toxic, non gluten, celiac promoting proteins. These proteins protect the grains from destruction by digestion, and to allow for wide distribution and propagation.
This study is one of many studies that have shown that grains contribute to disease processes.

In a future blog, I will describe the multiple toxic prolamines, also non-gluten proteins, found in grains.

I recommend a specific carbohydrate diet, updated by Dr. Campbell-McBride and called a GAPS diet.
For as long as it takes to clear up even the most minor problems, as these are signs of chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammation is the cause of most chronic illness of Western Societies including cancer.

All people are at risk of celiac disease. There is no constellation of symptoms or signs that is reliable for a clinical diagnosis. Get tested. If you don't have the money even for the genetic testing at www.enterolab.com  ,go on a GAPS diet and see how you do. Then as soon as possible get tested.

I don't know what to recommend if you don't have any gluten sensitivity or celiac genes. The evidence of the dangers to health of eating grains is enormous. But are there different "metabolic types" and some people can eat some small amounts of whole grains? I think so. But this is a subject for another day.

To your health

Dr. Barbara