You can use the powder or capsule form.
This is a nonessential amino acid that is the preferred fuel for the lining of the small intestine and can greatly facilitate healing. It can be taken for one to two months. It generally comes in powder form and is often combined with other compounds that facilitate gut repair.
Gut Anti-inflammatories
Quercitin, 500 mg twice a day with food and other bioflavonoids
This potent anti-inflammatory is helpful in restoring balance in the gut.
MEDICAL CARE PLAN
|
Very often some simple dietary changes and supplements can help overcome years of digestive problems and help improve the secondary mood and brain dysfunction that results. However, this is an area where it is often helpful to have some testing and to work with a doctor of Functional Medicine who knows how to address and work with digestive problems.
|
The healing process takes four main steps, which have to be done in the right order for you to get the best results. This is often referred to as the 4R program.
|
1.
Remove any offending factors, including potential food allergens; overgrowth of bacteria, yeast, parasites; and toxins such as heavy metals (see
chapters 10
and
26
on detoxification).
|
2.
Replace missing or weakened enzymes, acid, and fiber or prebiotics to help fertilize the healthy bacteria.
|
3.
Reinnoculate with probiotics or beneficial bacteria.
|
4.
Repair the intestinal lining with healing nutrients.
|
Eliminating allergens and taking enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, and healing nutrients can be done without medical care,
except
if you have a significant overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine, yeast overgrowth, infestation with parasites, or heavy metal toxicity.
|
Testing is often needed to identify these problems. Then medication is often
needed for adequate treatment. Sometimes herbs can be helpful as well in reducing the bad bugs. So you can try working through fixing your gut on your own, but if things don’t improve it may be time for testing and medication with your doctor’s help.
|
Remember, if you are standing on a tack it takes a lot of aspirin to feel better. If you have too much bacteria, yeast, or a parasite, you can eliminate all the foods you like or add all the healthy bacteria, but it may be an uphill battle unless you fully address any imbalances or infections with bugs in the gut.
|
SPECIAL NOTE: TREATING BUGS
|
Bugs that affect the gut come in three main varieties.
|
1.
Bacteria
|
2.
Yeast
|
3.
Parasites
|
Each type of bug needs different treatment. Testing can identify which bug or bugs are a problem for you.
|
Herbal therapies can often be helpful, but most of the time a short course of curative medication is necessary and dramatically effective.
|
Guidance from a trained practitioner is often necessary to test for and treat these problems. You can also get more information and a detailed guide for testing and treatment of bad bugs in your gut by going to
www.ultramind.com/guide
and downloading the companion guide for this book. It includes not only additional information on healing your gut but also many other tips and tools to make this program more powerful and easier to follow.
|
CHAPTER 26
KEY #5: ENHANCE DETOXIFICATION
The sustainability of our environment is directly connected to the sustainability of our health. Identifying if and how we are toxic, and addressing it directly by changing our habits, our choices, and our purchases in the marketplace, can have a global effect.
The connection between toxins and their effects on our brains are well established. The link between our addiction to energy, industrialization, and the millions of pounds of chemicals and heavy metals released every year into our environment, and the epidemics of autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and mood disorders, as well as heart disease, obesity, and cancer, should make us all stop and think about how we live.
Small choices can make a big difference. Imagine if one day everyone shifted to organic food, or as they did in Europe, to non-GMO food (genetically modified organisms). It would change the agriculture industry overnight.
That is why I believe it is important for everyone to live clean and green.
In most cases, the techniques for limiting your exposure to environmental toxins I outlined in Part III will help you detoxify and stay free of toxic substances.
Unfortunately, in some cases people have already been exposed to so much toxic material they need a little extra help. If you scored over 6 on the “Toxins” quiz, this may apply to you.
In this case, learning how your body’s own detoxification system works, and how to optimize its function, is key to achieving and maintaining optimal health. There is no great mystery on how do to this.
Self-Care Plan
There are a few simple things you can do to boost your detoxification system.
Dietary Support for Detoxification
Thankfully, plants have evolved many protective defenses against pests and infection, called phytonutrients. Many of these also help human biology to function better—especially in the realm of detoxification.
These defenses are better developed in organic foods because they have to work harder to survive. Eating organic food provides higher concentrations of these protective detoxifying, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory compounds. These compounds may outweigh the benefits we can get from other nutritional supplements in their overall effects on our health.
And they taste better!
The Detox Powerhouses
While I recommend these healing foods as part of the basic eating plan in Part III of the UltraMind Solution, it is worth emphasizing how important they are, and ensuring that you include these in your daily diet. There are many others that help in detoxification, including cilantro, celery, parsley, dandelion greens, citrus peels, and rosemary, but these are the ones I want you to be sure to include in your diet as often as possible—even daily.
Cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, collards, kale, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, arugula, radish, wasabi, watercress, kohlrabi, mustard greens, rutabaga, turnips). Eat at least one to two cups, cooked, daily.
