How Naturopathy Can Be a Beneficial Complement to Women’s Health Care
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/question-terrain-covid-19-keri-layton/
Naturopathic Medicine
How Naturopathy Can Be a Beneficial Complement to Women’s Health Care
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/question-terrain-covid-19-keri-layton/
Spring is such a beautiful season, bursting with new life, and tugging at the heartstrings of those who are struggling with fertility. Millions of women and men struggle to achieve pregnancy without invasive and interventions. When the fertility work up is normal, but nothing is happening, what else can a couple do?
Naturopathic Medicine stands at the crossroad of environmental health, primary care, psychology and nutrition. Women are most likely to become pregnant and carry healthy pregnancies when they are exposed to minimal hormone-disrupting chemicals and toxins, when health conditions such as hypothyroidism, low progesterone and others have been ruled out, when stress is in check and when the body is well nourished. This makes Naturopathic Doctors an excellent addition to a reproductive health team.
Supporting moms and babies has always been a passion of Dr. Layton. She is herself the mother of 2 children, and over the years has helped many women enter this brave role as well. Women who are a year or more from pregnancy are encouraged to come in to discuss current thinking on how to optimize their health in preparation for pregnancy. For women who have had a fertility work-up and are considering options before pursuing procedures including IUI or IVF, Dr. Layton is happy to review your labs and whole health history and suggest a supportive course of action. Dr. Layton has also helped women who are planning IVF apply evidence-based therapies that improve chances of success.
The best part? Naturopathic care helps people at all stages of life, so the little one can come in for general health support once s/he arrives as well.
How Processed Food Causes Disease.
Last fall I attended the Harvard School of Nutrition’s Symposium on Gut Health, Probiotics and the Microbiota. It’s an exciting meeting of researchers who are defining the role and medical uses of probiotics. They talk about what they have already found and published, and what they have happening now in the lab.
Most of the probiotic research right now is focused on taking a head count of bacteria in the gut under different conditions. Researchers showed graphs of bacteria in a healthy rodent, then compared it with the bacteria present in a rodent who has obesity/ heart disease/ depression, etc. Comparing them teaches us which bacteria are helpful and which ones show up when there is disease present. There is some research in humans, but using rodents lets researchers look at multiple generations in just a few years’ time. They also help us study whether simply putting bacteria in the GI tract causes these symptoms, even if nothing else has changed (spoiler alert: it does, but we’ll talk more about that in another post).
In the midst of these beautiful fluorescent graphs of bacteria found in the GI tract, one brave researcher, Dr. Gerwitz, showed a slide of actual rodent intestines*. Yes, it was kind of gross. The intestines had been removed from the rodents and were stretched out beside rulers to measure their length. One was much shorter than the other. Both rodents had been healthy; they were simply fed different diets. One had been given purified diets of carefully measured and controlled nutrients. The other one had been given a nutrient-rich diet of raw food scraps.
The rodent that had been given a purified diet of exactly what a rodent would need to be perfectly healthy, had a shorter intestine. The rodent who had eaten a balanced diet of diverse nutrients given to him as raw food scraps, actually had more intestine. The researcher also showed a change in the absorptive area of the intestines, called the villi. It was reduced in rats fed purified diets. The villi, or finger like projections that create absorptive area in the GI tract, were shorter in the rodents who ate a purified diet. We expect to see this when people with Celiac disease are eating gluten, but not simply from eating a purified or processed diet.
The Colitis and Metabolic Syndrome Connection
After Dr. Gerwitz amazed us with the truth that processing the diet changes the actual intestine, he said, “And we know when we give them these emulsifiers, we give them colitis. That always happens.”
Scrrreeeechhh. What??????????
The emulsifiers he was referring to were Polysorbate-80 and Carboxymethylcellulose. I found his paper on this topic to learn more.[1] It is not only colitis (Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis) that is caused by these common additives in processed foods… it is obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Emulsifiers are added to most processed foods to make them smoother, creamier and overall better looking for longer. Think about the difference between homemade oil and vinegar salad dressing that begins to separate before it gets to the table, and a store-bought Italian dressing that stays perfectly blended for months. The difference is that emulsifiers help the water and the oil mix and stay mixed. When they get to the intestine, they cause enough damage that the absorptive surface is compromised and the actual length of the intestine shortens.
What can we do about this?
When emulsifiers reach the protective layer of the GI tract, they cause damage that creates ongoing, low-grade inflammation. For some people, this erupts into colitis, and for other people, this changes the protective bacteria in the GI tract that help manage weight and blood sugar.
The first step towards using this information is avoiding food with emulsifiers in them. This can be hard! Emulsifiers keep baked goods from going stale, keep dill oil dissolved in bottled dill pickles, help coffee whiteners dissolve in coffee, and prevent oil from separating out of artificial whipped cream.[2] Make sure you read labels and avoid all Polysorbate-80 and Carboxymethycellose. Carboxymethylcellulose can be lumped in with “dietary fiber” on the label, so if you are really trying to get ahead of Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s disease, obesity or metabolic syndrome, it’s worth working towards making more and more of your food at home.
There is something else we can do. Another interesting thing this research found is that inulin[3] repaired the damage! Rodents fed purified, or processed, diets with inulin added to them had normal length intestines and healthy villi. Inulin is a prebiotic that helps feed the helpful bacteria in the Bifidobacter genus. These helpful bacteria repair damage to the intestine, fight bad bacteria and create a healthy environment in the gut.
So, when you do eat processed food, take a good probiotic with a variety of the beneficial bacteria that may be disrupted by the emulsifiers, along with a good prebiotic. It will help restore your healthy flora faster and support the good bacteria in your body that work to manage the inflammation.
(*It’s worth noting that these labs take many steps to treat the rodents humanely throughout their time in the lab, keep them comfortable and let them live as full a life as possible.)
[1] Chassaing, B., Koren, O., Goodrich, J., Poole, A., Srinivasan, S., Ley, R. E., & Gewirtz, A. T. (2015). Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome. Nature, 519(7541), 92–96. http://doi.org/10.1038/nature14232
[2] https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/chemical-cuisine#polysorbate
[3] Chassaing, B., Miles-Brown, J., Pellizzon, M., Ulman, E., Ricci, M., Zhang, L., … Gewirtz, A. T. (2015). Lack of soluble fiber drives diet-induced adiposity in mice. American Journal of Physiology – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, 309(7), G528–G541. http://doi.org/10.1152/ajpgi.00172.2015
This year’s holiday season is presenting special challenges, as the news cycle has been dramatic for all sides of the aisle. Whether you are motivated to give and participate in your community or moled up in a blanket fort watching Friends reruns, here are 5 things to get you through to 2017 in your best health:
1) Food is the main vehicle for health, so use it to your advantage this season. Choose fresh, plant rich dishes when you can to buffer the holiday onslaught of cookies, sweets and processed temptations. Eat small protein-rich snacks like nuts frequently so you come to these sweets with a well managed appetite. Respect your food allergies through the holiday season. Here are some great tips from the Whole Foods blog: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/food-allergies-holidays
2) Exhale. The holidays are a beautiful and fun season, but they are busy and can be emotionally draining. Whether you are sitting in traffic or waiting in line, take a long, slow exhale. Your next breath in will be deeper and richer in oxygen. It will keep you from hyperventilating, slow down your heart rate and bring you squarely into the present moment.
3) Sleep. With the arrival of artificial lights, we shed our obligation to follow the light cycle, but our bodies are not fully convinced. Try turning off all lights and screens as soon as you can at night. If you fall asleep right away, you are probably running on too little rest and need a chance to catch up. Make sure your room is dark and free from stress. Leave your laptop, work papers and phone outside of your bedroom to let your brain truly off and recharge.
4) Exercise. Some days are dipping into temperatures that are too low for safe excursions, but many days in December are still warm enough to get outside. Fresh air will mitigate the challenges of dusty heating systems, closed windows and winter germs. It will also bring mood up if the holiday blues have gotten you down. Make a plan to meet someone for a walk~ people are much more likely to honor a commitment to a friend than themselves, and this busy season of visits, it’s a very pleasant way to multi-task.
5) Depression can be a real challenge this time of year, and this particular year it is worse for folks who feel affected by the election. If you are having trouble meeting obligations or caring for yourself or family, please seek help from a qualified professional. Depression can be a period of reflection and growth. Remember that whatever the world news, you have the best influence over your own health and the wellbeing of those around. Appreciate the small gestures of kindness you witness in your daily life, and take time to be gentle with those around you. Even small acts of generosity~ holding a door or helping someone who is overloaded with baggage~ will benefit you and our larger community.