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. 

If there is one thing I can teach in this life, it is the importance of knowing yourself! I have lived my life for 51 years and realize how important this  premise is. Most of your life has taken you away from knowing yourself…all the programming you have absorbed from your environment…the messages you absorbed, applied, and carried forward…the teachings and conditioning you learned in order to survive in your family, your work environment, your social milieu, on and on it goes. Now is the time when all that learning that was false to your self is unravelling. It is time to embrace your authentic being. It is time to be free of all falsities and embrace your inner knowing about how you choose to live your life. This creates peace in your system. It involves self care that truly fits you. Following your intuition, reading books that you have been directed to read, taking courses in the area you are drawn to, keep searching for the inner you that resonates with these things.

I know to live my life with a high degree of self care. I go to bed early (10 pm) and rise early (by 6 am) if I want to feel most energized. Some people may deem that boring but I understand that living my life in a more structured way that honors my rhythms is important to me.  Other people can throw caution to the wind that are not as sensitive. People that stay up all night and love to live their life on the edge, not paying any attention to the clock, are not as sensitive. I was born sensitive and instead of lamenting that fact, I work with my life path, knowing that to live in alignment with that sensivity is my ideal and my choice. As a result, I choose to eat cleanly and really practice what I preach. I do better choosing to avoid sugar, gluten and dairy products. I like the OMS plan but note that I am sensitive to some lectins such as legumes so minimize my intake of them. You can know yourself too by paying attention to how you feel and what is helpful to implement in your diet and what is best to avoid. This is called increasing your self- awareness. Getting objective testing can help you too. There are plenty of functional medicine tests that can uncover root cause of your problem.

I am back to drinking green smoothies. It is the best way to get a lot of fruits and veggies into your diet and that helps reduce inflammation. Choose your greens- preferably organic and stuff at least 4 or 5 leafs into your container. Choose a rotation of organic greens- a few days choose kale, a few days choose swiss chard, a few days choose collards, etc. The point is to choose a variety of greens to get in different nutrients. You can blend in 2 tbsp seeds for extra fibre- flax seeds are ideal for women with hormonal issues but other seeds like chia seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, etc can be added to your smoothie. (Blend them in a coffee grinder first before you add them to your smoothie). Add some fruit like chopped up pear, a banana or frozen berries- currently I add wild organic blueberries and organic cranberries to my smoothie. Keep the variety in rotation and vary it. I add half an avocado to give me some good fat. I add around 12 oz filtered water and then blend. Try this and let me know how much energy you feel you gain from green smoothies. 

One book I have read repeatedly is Dirty Genes by Dr. Ben Lynch, ND. He explains why your genes might be contributing to your health sensitivities and how to compensate for them. He talks about what foods to eat if you have ‘dirty genes’. For people that need this fine tuning, genetic testing can be helpful to gain a deeper understanding on how to support your body. Taking the time to know yourself helps immensely too. In his book, he has quizzes that you can take to understand if you have dirty genes and what you can do about it. I highly recommend his book if you like reading about health. Knowing yourself can be greatly helped by reading more books so you have more knowlege and can make informed decisions about your life.

Being a highly sensitive empath, I absorb a lot of the environment around me even when I don’t wish to. Therefore it is important that I avoid crowds and environments with a lot of people. Otherwise I feel drained. I put protection around me energetically but you won’t see me at local shopping malls for that reason. If I am in a busy environment with a lot of other people. I will have a salt bath after (1/2 cup sea salt) and (1/2 cup  baking soda) with 5 drops of lavender essential oil to stimulate my parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest system). I get into nature as much as I can and breathe. I exercise for at least 30 minutes daily.  I do yoga to strengthen my system and spend time in meditation. I am doing a Deepak Chopra meditation which takes about 20 minutes to do daily. Keep doing what you need to do to stay in balance right now. Only you know what that means to you. Last of all, love and accept yourself! If u would welcome more support, please join my membership club Robin’s nest or book an appointment with me.  4032321283 Kind regards, Dr. Robin Vinge, ND