|
Elimination diet is a term used to describe a dietary approach in which a specific food or food group is eliminated from a person’s diet for a period of time. The elimination diet is typically employed for four to six weeks, but can be employed much longer. The purpose of the elimination diet is to help identify food intolerances, food allergies and reduce inflammation in the body and gut. Once an offending food or food group has been identified, the elimination diet may need to be maintained long term in order for a person to see lasting relief from disorders and diseases such as: Celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, urticarial disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, and migraine headaches.
An elimination diet can include the removal of just one food type, but often includes at least one complete food group and up to six food groups. The most common groups of food allergens that are addressed and/or eliminated during an elimination diet are: bovine dairy products, eggs, soy, wheat (gluten), nuts (including tree nuts) and fish (including shellfish). Of these six food groups, the two most commonly eliminated are wheat and bovine dairy. Elimination diets are used to help a practitioner identify foods that are causing allergic and/or inflammatory responses in the body. Most people are familiar with the idea of food allergies causing negative effects in the body like anaphylaxis in the case of someone with a severe allergic response to nuts or shellfish. Many people, however, do not have such severe and visible reactions to offending foods, but the long-term effects can still be quite damaging to the body. For many people, the effects include one or more of the following: upset stomach, bloating, acne, skin rashes, hives, mouth sores, joint pain, hair loss, depression, anxiety, nausea, insomnia, weight gain, weight loss, vomiting, constipation, and diarrhea. An elimination diet is implemented following a general course of action. First, a patient meets with their practitioner to discuss their symptoms along with specifics of their diet. A food journal is often requested by the practitioner to help identify specific and troublesome foods. Once the patient’s symptoms are identified the practitioner will specifically discuss which foods or food groups should be temporarily eliminated from the diet. As mentioned above, the practitioner can recommend one or more food groups to eliminate. Those foods are eliminated, depending on the severity of the condition or disease, for 30 days or up to 3 months. After this time, the potentially offending foods are reintroduced to the diet slowly and one at a time. By reintroducing the foods slowly back into the diet the practitioner and the patient can figure out which food or foods are responsible for their conditions or disease. After the elimination diet is complete and the offending food or foods have been identified, it is often the case that those foods need to be completely eliminated long term from the diet, or else the symptoms will ultimately return. Through the elimination of the offending foods, the patient’s body is able to heal, thus eliminating or greatly reducing the symptoms experienced by the patient. At DCAM, the elimination diet is one of our most powerful tools used to diagnose and treat food intolerances and allergies. Elegantly simple, when done properly the elimination diet can be far superior to most available blood and skin allergy tests. For more information, or if you are experiencing any of the symptoms of food allergies or intolerances, please contact our office. Our practitioners would be happy to help. In our previous post, we looked at how your gut health impacts your health, mood, brain, and just about everything else physiological in your brain and body. This week we are going to take a quick look at what can be done to heal your gut, and thereby heal your microbiome.
The first step is to figure out what the issue is with your gut. Among the most common is leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut syndrome is a repetitive cycle where food particles and toxins escape the intestinal lining due to damage usually caused by a poor diet for multiple years. The food particles and toxins enter into parts of the body they should not be, thus triggering an immune response. That immune response is continuous and remains triggered for as long as the intestinal lining is damaged. Bacterial imbalance is another potential cause of gut issues. We all have billions of bacterial cells in our intestines. Sometimes, the ratio of these bacteria can be thrown off by things like antibiotics or a poor diet. Where certain types of bacteria make up too large a percentage of the microbiome, dysbiosis occurs. Like leaky gut, bacterial imbalance is a repudiative cycle that does not end until the gut is healed. Two more things to consider, which often occur in concert with leaky gut syndrome, are histamine intolerance and yeast imbalances. A yeast imbalance is very similar to bacterial imbalance. We all have yeast in our bodies, but if the balance is thrown off, often by poor diet and/or antibiotic use, the result is again, dysbiosis. Histamine intolerance involves our body's inability to breakdown certain histamines. This results in our systems releasing histamine to counteract the incoming histamine, resulting in a histamine overload. For people with histamine tolerance issues, this exacerbates our gut issues. So, now that we know what can go wrong, how doe we fix it? The first step is often an elimination diet. Second step is a cleaning up your diet, managing your stress, and eating prebiotic and probiotic containing foods. There are also products on the market like Ion Gut Support, that help rebuild intestinal linings and put in order bacterial and yeast balances. Next month we will dive headlong into the elimination diet. Until then, if you would like more information about how to fix your gut issues, please click below. Microbiome continues to be one of the most popular medical words of the decade, and that’s a good thing. Scientist are finding more and more connections between the gut, the brain, and the rest of the body. If your microbiome is out of balance, your health is absolutely suffering.
The microbiome controls gut health by communicating with intestinal cells, digesting food, and preventing disease. But that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the importance of a healthy, well-balanced microbiome. Gut health has direct and profound impacts on systems related to immune function, skin health, heart health, and mental health just to name a few. Your gut is home to approximately 80% of the cells that make up the immune system. When your gut is not functioning properly, neither is your immune system! The only way to get your immune and other body systems back on track is to fix your microbiome! Click below to learn more about gut health and how it impacts your overall health. Come back next month for a discussion about how to FIX YOUR GUT! What is a Myers’ Cocktail and what does it do. First off, there is no alcohol involved in this mocktail. The Myers’ Cocktail, created by Dr. Myers in the 1970s, is a mixture of essential vitamins and minerals that administered to the body through an IV. The cocktail generally consists of high levels of vitamins C and B, as well as the minerals magnesium and calcium. These vitamins and minerals, often along with others, are mixed into sterile water and then infused into the patient over the course of twenty minutes to an hour. By infusing the mixture directly into the blood stream, the digestive system is skipped, thus ensuring the maximum amount of bioavailability of the vitamins and minerals to the patient. This can be especially helpful for patients with food sensitivities who struggle to get the proper amounts of certain vitamins and minerals through their diets.
Myers’ Cocktail Cocktails have been shown to do the following:
DCAM is excited to announce the coming addition of Myers’ Cocktails to the offerings made in our Therapy Room. Through our close partner, BioBalance Wellness, patients at DCAM will be able to schedule their own infusion right here in our office. Call 609-298-1064 to schedule an appointment. (Note: While not offered yet, DCAM expects this therapy to be available very soon.) Click here to learn more about MyerS' Cocktails. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that effects people mainly in the fall and winter months. It is believed to be related to changes in our circadian rhythms and the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and melatonin brought on by a change in the length of daylight hours. Approximately 10 million people suffer every year from SAD. This disorder effects women nearly four times more often than men and can last up to 40% of the year.
The good news is SAD can be treated simply by the exposure of the body to sunlight. This light can be simulated by different specialty lights made to mimic the sun. Other treatments include exercise, mental health therapy, healthy eating, nutrient supplements, and antidepressants. Below are some simple steps to kick SAD to the curb in the new year! Maximize Natural Light Exposure:
Here at DCAM we offer several exciting ways to help our patients fight off the effects of SAD. In our Therapy Room we have an entire area dedicated to red and ultraviolet light exposure, which has been shown time and time again to help curb SAD. We also have BrainTap. BrainTap, created by scientists, helps in two ways; it provides light exposure directly to the eyes and ears simulating sunlight. BrainTap also has a vast library of guided audio tracks intended to assist the patient with difficulties including many forms of depression, eating disorders, sports performance, stress and anxiety reduction as well as a ton of different topics. (For more information about BrainTap, please see the November 2023 DCAM blog.) And for patients seeking the absolute best in mental health care, we have teamed up with Momentum Counseling, Coaching, and Consulting. Psychotherapist Maureen Gerald, the owner of Momentum, helps her patients combat mental health disorders with respect and kindness. She is truly one of a kind! Contact DCAM today to learn more about the exciting treatment options available right here at our office. Ozone is a naturally occurring molecule that is present in our upper atmosphere. In the ozone layer of the stratosphere most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation is absorbed. As the ozone descends from the stratosphere, it breaks down into oxygen resulting in only a minuscule amount of ozone present in the air we breathe. The word ozone comes from a Greek word meaning smell. As the name explains, ozone has a very distinct odor to it. Once you smell it, you will forever recognize the smell as ozone.
There are many benefits to ozone being used as a therapy. Ozone therapies can generally be administered via IV, or insufflation. Insufflating ozone involves drawing the isolated ozone gas into a syringe and injecting the gas directly into the nasal cavities, rectum or vagina. When administered through the rectum or vagina, a small catheter is inserted and the gas is injected through the catheter. The patient will then rest and lie still for approximately 20 minutes in order for the gas to be absorbed into the blood stream. So long as the procedure is performed by a qualified professional, this is a very safe method of ozone therapy. Nasal insufflation involves the patient injecting approximately 30 ml of ozone directly into the nasal cavity via both nostrils. The patient does this while holding their breath. After approximately 10 to 15 seconds, the patient exhales through their nose thus expelling the remaining ozone gas that was not absorbed. The patient is encouraged to exhale as opposed to inhaling the remaining gas because the ozone can cause some patients to cough or cause temporary throat irritation. The entire procedure takes less than one minute from the time of administration. So what are the benefits of nasal insufflation of ozone? It provides many benefits to both the nasal passageways and the entire body. Several of the most common benefits include:
DCAM is excited to announce we will soon be offering ozone nasal insufflation. This will provide yet another exciting modality for our patients to try during their health journey! Is it truly possible to repair your brain in 30 days? What kind of damage and how severe are we talking about? The answer to the first question is yes, but it does depend on what kind of damage we are referring to. Sadly, we are not referring to traumatic brain injuries (TBI), or other types of truly physically induced damage to the brain. We are, however, talking about damage to the brain caused by stress, post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, general age related cognitive decline, and other related conditions. While these types of damage are not so easy to identify on an MRI or other medical tests, the damage they cause is very real, as are the results of that damage and the effects it has on how you think, feel, act, react, and deal with every situation life throws at you.
So what is the cure? The answer is a product called BrainTap. BrainTap helps the patient think, perform, sleep, relax, and deal with stress better. It utilizes a combination of neural beats, red and blue light therapy for the eyes and ears, audio guided visualization, and 10-cycle holographic music to help the brain establish new neural pathways. For decades top scientists believed that once the human brain reached a certain age, it was no longer able to heal or repair. Today, it is a well accepted fact that the human brain can repair through a process known as neuroplasticity. After decades of research, the scientists and doctors at BrainTap figured out a near perfect combination of therapies and stimulations to help the patient repair their brain in the comfort of their local practitioner's office, or even their own home. Research and the writer's personal experience attest to the power of BrainTap. The research around BrainTap suggests that permanent positive changes in the brain can be attained in as little as one session. In 30 days the results are profound and life changing! DCAM has partnered with BrainTap making their revolutionary product available right here in the office! Call today to schedule your first session; it will be life changing!!! For information about BrainTap, click here. What is red light therapy, or RLT? RLT is a treatment using infrared and near infrared lights. How does RLT work? RLT therapy devices generally have two different types of LEDs that emit differing light wavelengths capable of penetrating the outer layer of the skin, providing the underlying cells with usable energy. What are the benefits of using RLT? RLT has been shown to stimulate collagen production, reduce inflammation in the body, stimulate blood flow, increase wound healing, reduce muscle fatigue, increase the speed of muscle recovery following exertion, improve acne, improve hair growth in people with androgenic alopecia, and reduce the appearance of scars, stretch marks, and wrinkles.
In September 2023, DCAM opened their "Therapy Room". The Therapy Room includes RLT, oxygen therapy, and BrainTap. The RLT at DCAM is a therapeutic grade LED device that provides the user with a top-notch RTL experience. Our RLT device emits the most effective wavelengths combination from 660nm (Deep Red) - 850 (Near-Infrared) equally to support your overall wellness. Red light is recommended for skin condition treatments, while NIR is for deep tissue healing. In the short month since the opening of the DCAM Therapy Room, RLT has become a popular and go-to therapy for many of our patients. Check out the September edition of DCAM News for more detailed information about oxygen therapy. And come back here again next month for a full explanation of what may be DCAM's most exciting therapy currently offered, BrainTap. Cannot wait that long for more information? Feel free to call or email DCAM today for an appointment in the Therapy Room. Be warned however, appointment slots are filling up fast so call today to reserve a time for you to begin your new health journey! The air we breathe every day consists of around 20% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, 1% argon, .5% carbon dioxide, and .5% other trace gases. DCAM’s medical grade oxygen concentrator ups the percentage of available oxygen to approximately 95%. Breathing the air supplied by the oxygen concentrator leads to a state of hyper-oxygenation within the body.
Because every cell in our body requires oxygen for the human body to function properly, breathing oxygen levels this high puts the body into a state of temporary hyperoxygenation. Think of the human body like a combustion engine. Every combustion engine requires oxygen to function. Our bodies are like this, and when we increase the amount of bioavailable oxygen, we in a way supercharge the potential/ability of every cell in our bodies. This can lead to:
So why don’t we all walk around with a device that provides us with pure oxygen all day every day. The reason is our bodies are designed to work efficiently with the normal levels of oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. Breathing near pure oxygen for too long signals to the body to create fewer red blood cells, thereby reducing the amount of oxygen available to the body. This would lead to shortness of breath, headaches, and a plethora of other unhealthy complications and disfunctions within the body. Research as shown that a normal person, without any breathing or blood issues, can do oxygen therapy daily for up to an hour without any negative consequences. At DCAM, our sessions generally last for 30 minutes or less, thus further reducing the possibilities of any negative consequences, but providing for the perfect amount of time to achieve the positive effects of oxygen therapy. At DCAM we pair our oxygen concentrator with aromatherapy using therapeutic grade essential oils. This combination of aromatherapy and concentrated oxygen helps to increase the positive effects of the therapy, especially those of mood, stress reduction, and feeling rejuvenated. DCAM also has the ability to provide the concentrated oxygen without any essential oils for those who prefer just the oxygen. Check back next month for additional information about other exciting therapies now being offered at DCAM! Inflammation, first of all what is it? According to WebMD, "Inflammation is a process by which your body's white blood cells and the things they make protect you from infection from outside invaders, such as bacteria and viruses. But in some diseases, like arthritis, your body's defense system -- your immune system -- triggers inflammation when there are no invaders to fight off. In these autoimmune diseases, your immune system acts as if regular tissues are infected or somehow unusual, causing damage." Going further, there are two types of inflammation, acute and chronic. Acute in this context generally refers to inflammation that resolves in hours to days. Chronic refers to inflammation lasting months to years. Now that we have defined the issue, let's figure out what to do about it. Please take a look at the below wheel diagram from Spectracell. For more information, feel free to give us a call here at DCAM, where we can supply you with useful and accurate information about how to lower your own inflammation.  |
Archives
December 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed