To reduce inflammation, it is necessary to eat more fibre. Eating fibre causes the production of short chain fatty acids by gut microbes. These short chain fatty acids inhibit inflammatory signals in your body like TNF-alpha, NF-KB and IFN-y. Short chain fatty acids also communicate directly to our T regulatory cells to cool off our immune system and suppress inflammation.  Butyrate is one of the short chain fatty acids produced by eating fibre. It improves integrity in the gastrointestinal system. Fibre is found in both insoluble forms as well as soluble forms of fiber. Think the color of the rainbow when you choose foods -eat more foods that are coloured and increase the variety- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, golden, white.

Choose  polyphenol rich foods like green tea,  pomegranates, purple cabbage, unsweetened cranberries, wild blueberries, leafy greens, organic  kale, whole unprocessed gluten free grains like red rice, black rice, wild rice, quinoa, buckwheat. Eat 12 cups of low glycemic fruits and non starchy vegetables including the cruciferous family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, kale, radish) which is so esteemed for its cancer fighting properties. Raw nuts and seeds, lentils and legumes if tolerated are a great source of fiber. Soaking these foods in water overnight can assist digestion as can soaking whole grains in a little water.

Some people that are really inflamed may benefit from following a vegan diet. It is important to have an experienced practitioner provide you with guidelines for doing that. It is easy to run into deficiencies when following a vegan diet like B12, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids, iodine. Always use non-GMO  organic soy sources when following a vegan diet and make sure you are using fermented sources like miso if possible. Miso has strains of bacteria that support gut function. 

Make bone broth in your slow cooker regularly. Bone broth contains gut healing amino acids like glycine, proline, glutamine and collagen which is well assimilated by the body. Eat prebiotic foods (asparagus, jicama, artichokes, leeks, onions, garlic, spices. etc regularly. Eat organic spices such as oregano, rosemary, turmeric, cumin, etc. which help keep bad microbe counts down in the gut. Eat probiotic foods like fermented sauerkraut and kim chi regularly too. This will help you provide the right bacteria for your microbiome. Fermented foods offer more species of bacteria in your gut. The increased diversity of species introduced tend to lower inflammation. Also include resistant starch which can be found in cooked and then cooled rice or cooked and then cooled potatoes. This type of starch does not get digested like regular starch. It does not spike blood glucose and provides food for the microbiome.

So just to recap, we are going to reduce inflammation by cutting out foods and inflammatory factors in the diet.  We are going to lower inflammation by eating more fibre. Once inflammation subsides, you can work with your personal trainer or your chiropractor who can assist you further to achieve your goals whether it be by implementing stretching into your routine or regular chiropractic adjustments. 

Others things that may help you include food sensitivity testing, targeted supplements like l-glutamine, curcumin. I will talk more about this in Part 3. To book an appointment to discuss your inflammation, call Parallel Wellness at 4032321283 Thanks! Dr. Robin Vinge, ND

References:  The Peigan Diet Mark Hyman, MD; Fiber Fueled Will Bulsiewicz, MD 

Why are we so inflammed? Epidemics of chronic disease are on the rise including diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease and cancer. How can we begin to address the inflammation and start to reverse it? Some of the reasons for chronic inflammation include our levels of stress in Western culture, our sedentary desk bound lifestyle, inflammatory diet and our poor gut function. Stress is often the tipping factor in our Western Culture. We do not value our families enough or community in general. Spending time with people that we love helps reduce inflammation. We are more concerned with productivity and running ourselves ragged versus taking really good care of ourselves and valuing rest and relaxation.

We all have an individual threshold where we start to feel stressed. It is important to know yourself so you understand how prone you are to feeling stressed. We all need tools to live in balance with our stress. I suggest doing a daily meditation practice for 20 minutes, exercise for at least 30 minutes- the important thing is that you move your body doing something that you love. Hydrotherapy in the form of hot saunas followed by a cold shower can reset the nervous system. Cold showers in general can help the body feel less inflammed and support your mitochondria (the energy producing organelles in your cells). Massage, acupuncture and healing touch can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) versus the sympathetic system which is stimulated by stress.

Sitting is the new smoking so we need to do consistent exercise every day. As we age, we are prone to sarcopenia which is a decline in our strength and loss of muscle. We need to build our strength by going to lift weights three times per week or incorporate strength building yoga into our routine or resistance band exercises. Work with a personal trainer if you need more direction. See a chiropractor who can adjust you and offer you more pointed exercises for your particular goals.

To lower inflammation, we need to eliminate factors in diet that increase inflammation and this is a vast topic. Eliminate natural sweeteners in the diet for starters- read labels.  Artificial sweeteners like Splenda mess with metabolism and cause you to be prone to weight gain. There was a study in Medscape this past week linking aspartame with higher rates of cancer. Avoid all sweeteners which lead to more inflammation. Sweeteners on occasion that are fine include stevia, monk fruit, maple syrup, honey, date sugar, coconut sugar or molasses. 

To lower inflammation, we need to eliminate processed food, white flour, refined grains. We need to eliminate bad fats such as trans fats and hydrogenated fats. We need to cut out sugar and alcohol which leads to permeability in our intestines. We need to potentially cut out common food sensitivities like gluten and dairy products. In my patients that have arthritis, I often recommend cutting out nightshade vegetables which can contribute to chronic pain (white potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers and hot peppers, eggplant). An elimination for 21 days followed by an reintroduction could elicit some valuable information for you to cut down on your inflammation.

Because 70% of your immune system is in your gut in the form of GALT (gut associated lymphatic tissue), most inflammatory diseases have some underlying dysbiosis (imbalance in good and bad bacteria) brought on by eating a poor diet, environmental toxins like pesticides and herbicides, food sensitivities and more. 

For starters we need to eat an antiinflammatory diet. It is best to focus in eating a diet high in non starchy vegetables, berries, low glycemic fruit, protein from high quality sources like organic pasture raised eggs (if there is no sensitivity to eggs), pasture raised poultry, grass fed beef, omega 3 from wild fish (SMASH) sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, herring). Monounsaturated fats from avocado, raw nuts and seeds can be incorporated as well. Soaking overnight in water can help with digestion of nuts or sprouting if necessary. Nuts come up on food sensitivity testing a lot so if you have poor gut function, you might need to wait before you introduce nuts.  Come see me if you want to talk about this subject at Parallel Wellness in downtown Calgary. Dr. Robin Vinge 4032321283

References: The Peigan Diet Mark Hyman

Hello everyone- If you have a chance to check out the world tapping summit, you will not be disappointed. Everyday they have experts who lead you through tapping on various challenges that may be perceived to be obstacles in your life. Tapping helps with clearing negative emotions. Dawson Church was on the summit talking about the research underlying tapping. Tapping produces changes in 72 genes that suppress cancers such as prostate, breast, colon cancer and throat cancer. Tapping also activates genes that produce more stem cells. Tapping helps regulate your brain and when you do that you change everything! It attenuates brain waves and helps nerve cells regenerate. How good you feel in your body is affected by neurotransmitters and hormones which can be stimulated by one hour of tapping. Cortisol and norepinephrine are affected by tapping. Reducing cortisol can help you feel more resilient in the face of stress for instance. To read about the research underlying tapping, be sure and pick up one of Dawson Church’s 3 books- Mind to Matter, The Genie in Your Genes, or Bliss Brain. Until next time, happy tapping! I have a special on right now for one hour Emotional Freedom Technique and counseling -$99. To book in with me, please call 4032321283. I would love to assist you with any challenge you are dealing with right now.