by Sheila Landis, Nutritional Therapist in Portland
Stress, excess caffeine, and busy schedules are often the most obvious scapegoats for a
The good news is simply including some key foods in your diet to replenish the anti-stress nutrient, magnesium, could be helpful.
The need for calcium in reference to bone health is widely publicized but we rarely hear of its essential balancing partner, magnesium. Calcium functions to constrict muscle tissues in the body, while magnesium enables relaxation. Adding magnesium through food or supplementation could be your key to more restful sleep, better focus, fewer muscle cramps and maintaining healthy blood pressure.*
Mineral deficiencies are prevalent in our culture as we rush from one event to the next, grabbing the first available form of food. Compounding our mineral challenges are the farming practices that have evolved favoring fertilizers over organic mineral rich soils. While small amounts of nutrient deficient foods may be tolerated, combining a lifestyle of chronic stress, lack of sleep, medications and limited exercise will deplete the body of key minerals and lead to symptoms. If any of the symptoms below plague your daily routine, it might be time to expand your menu.
Symptoms associated with magnesium deficiency include:
● Constipation
● Depression
● Insulin Resistance
● Restless Leg Syndrome
● Muscle Cramps
● Insomnia
● High Blood Pressure
● Migraine Headaches
● Numbness or Tingling in Extremities
The Food Solution – Eating foods rich in magnesium is a healthy, risk free way to replenish
this precious health aid. Here is a shopping list that includes some of the foods highest in magnesium. Almonds and Cashews - raw or sprouted, these nuts contain some of the highest levels of magnesium from a food source. A serving size is considered a small handful, approximately 12 to 15 nuts or a ¼ cup. Avoid roasted salted nuts as they can go rancid when exposed to high heat during roasting. Consider replacing your existing dairy based milk with a quality almond milk to add more magnesium while still preserving your calcium source.
Dark Chocolate (ideally raw cacao) – if you crave chocolate, perhaps you are actually craving magnesium. Indulge in dark chocolate that is 70% or higher dark cacao and low in sugar. If you really want to stay clean, add raw cacao powder to your favorite protein shake for a “guilt free” treat.
Leafy Greens – Swiss chard and spinach are among the highest in minerals and specifically magnesium. A great way to ensure a healthy dose daily is by adding a green drink to your morning routine. Whether juiced or blended, greens mixed with a few berries, some apple and a dash of lemon juice will boost your morning motivation and infuse your day with sustained energy. No time, considered a powdered green drink you mix with water on the go.
Seeds – pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds and pine nuts are all excellent sources of a wide range of vitamins and minerals. Make these your afternoon go to snack in conjunction with a fresh piece of fruit.
Fish – wild caught fish packs a host of minerals in perfect balance with all the necessary cofactors to assimilate these essential nutrients. Vitamin D and heart healthy omega fats naturally blend with minerals to create the perfect anti-inflammatory medication through diet. Make fresh (or fresh frozen) fish part of your routine at least twice a week.
Sea Vegetables – typically known for their iodine content, they are rich in a wealth of minerals including magnesium, and potassium. Add kelp flakes to your salad or steamed vegetables several days a week. Cook a few extra vegetables the night before and have the leftovers in a Nori sheet for lunch. (Note: Nori sheets can be found in most health food stores along with kelp flakes. Construct the wraps just prior to eating for best flavor.)
Magnesium Supplements – Supplementation can help support already healthy levels of
magnesium in the body(1)* It comes in numerous forms and may be ingested or applied topically. Consult a practitioner for the path that best conforms to your health needs.
Refining your diet to include these key foods to could head off symptoms you are totally unaware are brewing inside you. Here’s to eating for health before medicating!
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
References:
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/magnesium/
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/magnesium
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
by Adam Killpartrick, DC, CNS
‘Where do we go next in terms of supplements?’ I reply, ‘A good multivitamin that fills the gaps in the diet, delivered through whole food for optimal delivery.’
‘Should I look at anything beyond a multi?’ And with that, my first thought is usually Magnesium.
‘Well isn’t there enough magnesium in the multivitamin?’. Not necessarily.
Most multivitamins don’t contain a clinically significant dose (some may, but it’s uncommon).
Magnesium is a large mineral that takes up a lot of space in a tablet or capsule. So in order to deliver the dose needed to support various systems and functions in the body, there is often a need to further supplement your patients with added magnesium.
As far as recommending this mineral, I've begun to group magnesium into a ‘foundational’ role because of the broad application in my practice. I use it to support one patient’s cerebrovascular health after a major brain injury while another patient may need to support her thyroid*. I have athletes who take magnesium to support muscular health and provide magnesium to support healthy levels of smooth muscle contraction for women during their cycle*. With so many applications it competes with many of the other ‘foundational’ products I recommend and is more often than not coupled with the standard whole food multi or probiotic.
But when it comes to your patients getting exactly what you’re intending them to get, I would like to remind of a couple of keys to optimal absorption.
- High amounts of supplemental zinc can interfere with magnesium absorption and disrupt magnesium balance.
- Optimal protein intake is essential to absorb magnesium. Inadequate protein intake can potentially result in lower levels of available magnesium in the body.
- Excessive amounts of fiber in the diet may decrease magnesium utilization.
- Adequate vitamin D levels may also serve as a factor in optimal absorption of magnesium.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food
and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure
or prevent any disease.
by Erin Stokes, ND, Medical Director at FoodState®
Autumn is the season of harvest, as well as a time of transition. We see evidence of this transition everywhere, as the days become shorter and the nights grow longer. Leaves change color and fall from the trees, and animals prepare for the upcoming winter by gathering food.
What are humans doing to adapt to the seasonal change? Usually, not much.
At this time of year, our bodies need more sleep (but we often don’t get it), and it’s also an ideal time to focus on optimizing digestive function. Between 60-80% of immune cells are located in and around the gastrointestinal tract. So, it stands to reason that a healthy GI tract is an excellent way to prepare ahead of time for winter’s immune challenges.
With Seasonal Therapeutics, no matter which season it is, there is always an emphasis on being proactive to get ahead of seasonal challenges.
Here are a few ways to support digestive health during the fall season:
What are humans doing to adapt to the seasonal change? Usually, not much.
At this time of year, our bodies need more sleep (but we often don’t get it), and it’s also an ideal time to focus on optimizing digestive function. Between 60-80% of immune cells are located in and around the gastrointestinal tract. So, it stands to reason that a healthy GI tract is an excellent way to prepare ahead of time for winter’s immune challenges.
With Seasonal Therapeutics, no matter which season it is, there is always an emphasis on being proactive to get ahead of seasonal challenges.
Here are a few ways to support digestive health during the fall season:
- Avoid individual food allergens and high glycemic load carbohydrates. Focus instead on whole foods with a strong emphasis on increasing vegetable intake. This is a good time of year to help people identify those food allergens and sensitivities. Food allergens can be identified with an elimination diet, or alternatively, some people prefer to selectively eliminate the most common offenders one at a time, such as gluten or dairy.
- Support a healthy inflammatory response in the GI tract with herbs such as Turmeric Root, Boswellia Serrata, and Ginger Root.
- Depending on the individual, consider proactively increasing frequency and/ or potency of probiotics when moving into the autumn months.
What are your favorite season specific health tips in the autumn season?
Share with the practitioner community!
by Adam Killpartrick, DC, CNS
I had a patient the other day talking about feeling lethargic, needing to lose weight and generally not feeling that great. When I looked back at her intake, which was from some time ago, she indicated that she drank two diet sodas per day. When I inquired about the soda, she said she still drinks that much soda, then asked, ‘...but what does soda have to do with fatigue and losing weight?’. The answer may be common sense to us but not to her. From that one question I succeeded in opening up an incredible conversation on foundational health, nutritional gaps and the connection to her symptoms.
So after her appointment, I looked at the intake again, it was entirely geared toward symptoms and conditions. I failed to dig down into her ‘foundation’, including dietary habits, cravings she has, digestive and physiologic responses to specific foods and it certainly didn’t create a strong connection to her existing symptoms.
The soda, by far, wasn’t the root cause for her original symptoms, but it served as one of the many ‘cracks in her foundation’. Upon opening up that discussion it turned out that she consumed varied ‘boxed’ foods, most of which say ‘Lean’ or ‘Watchers’ on them. Then we begin talking about digestion and the response her body has to food and she indicated that she needed to take between 6 and 8 antidiarrheal medications to get through the day. Obviously my approach to this patient’s care plan shifted a bit from strictly musculoskeletal therapies to a broader, more integrative approach for the arthritic joint discomfort she was experiencing.
When it came to this patient, I simply put the cart before the horse. I started chasing down her symptoms rather than first assessing her foundational status and identifying the root cause of her symptoms. And as much as I preach that healthcare providers shouldn’t fall into the ‘chasing symptoms’ mentality, its exactly what I did. But its not entirely my fault (I’m more than happy to deflect blame) as when I reviewed my intake, it was completely devoid of foundational information and focused exclusively on symptoms.
This is exactly why I’ve been so excited about the ‘Foundational Solutions’ dietary intake that INNATE has put together. It provides key information about your patients’ everyday habits and yields clinically relevant information to help guide a foundational approach that can ultimately be used in tandem with the therapeutic protocol your patient needs to be on.
Since this patient presented in my office and made me aware of the gaping holes in my intake, I’ve refined my intake and included the Foundational Solutions Dietary Intake as a standard form. This is serving two purposes for me so far. First, its providing me with that key information I referred to earlier and secondly, it allows me to open up a discussion with patients that educates them on the role and the connection that foundational health has relative to their symptoms.
So after her appointment, I looked at the intake again, it was entirely geared toward symptoms and conditions. I failed to dig down into her ‘foundation’, including dietary habits, cravings she has, digestive and physiologic responses to specific foods and it certainly didn’t create a strong connection to her existing symptoms.
The soda, by far, wasn’t the root cause for her original symptoms, but it served as one of the many ‘cracks in her foundation’. Upon opening up that discussion it turned out that she consumed varied ‘boxed’ foods, most of which say ‘Lean’ or ‘Watchers’ on them. Then we begin talking about digestion and the response her body has to food and she indicated that she needed to take between 6 and 8 antidiarrheal medications to get through the day. Obviously my approach to this patient’s care plan shifted a bit from strictly musculoskeletal therapies to a broader, more integrative approach for the arthritic joint discomfort she was experiencing.
When it came to this patient, I simply put the cart before the horse. I started chasing down her symptoms rather than first assessing her foundational status and identifying the root cause of her symptoms. And as much as I preach that healthcare providers shouldn’t fall into the ‘chasing symptoms’ mentality, its exactly what I did. But its not entirely my fault (I’m more than happy to deflect blame) as when I reviewed my intake, it was completely devoid of foundational information and focused exclusively on symptoms.
This is exactly why I’ve been so excited about the ‘Foundational Solutions’ dietary intake that INNATE has put together. It provides key information about your patients’ everyday habits and yields clinically relevant information to help guide a foundational approach that can ultimately be used in tandem with the therapeutic protocol your patient needs to be on.
Since this patient presented in my office and made me aware of the gaping holes in my intake, I’ve refined my intake and included the Foundational Solutions Dietary Intake as a standard form. This is serving two purposes for me so far. First, its providing me with that key information I referred to earlier and secondly, it allows me to open up a discussion with patients that educates them on the role and the connection that foundational health has relative to their symptoms.
by Adam Killpartrick, DC, CNS
This is less than ideal and the least we can do as responsible liver owners is to throw a little love the liver’s way. There are many strategies to accomplish this but providing foundational support for the liver can easily be approached from a proactive standpoint and is a great place to start. Two natural compounds, Nacetylcysteine (NAC) and milk thistle, lend outstanding and much needed foundational liver support.*
Let's quickly review, there are two phases to liver detoxification. Phase One converts fat soluble toxicants to intermediary metabolites, which are actually more toxic and reactive than their predecessors. Phase II then converts these toxic intermediaries into water soluble metabolites to be excreted.
The six main pathways of liver detoxification to support and nourish include: Sulfation, Glucuronidation, Glutathione conjugation, Acetylation, Amino acid conjugation, and Methylation. Sulfation, for example, requires sulfur-containing amino acids. Nacetylcysteine (NAC) contains critical sulfur containing molecules, which is why it is considered one of the beneficial nutrients you can take to support detox pathways.* In fact, NAC has both a direct and indirect role in detoxification.* Directly, this nutrient supports healthy expression of the Cytochrome P450 enzymes.* Indirectly, NAC supports healthy levels of intracellular glutathione, thus supporting healthy antioxidant levels.*
Milk thistle is another, perhaps one of the best known supportive botanicals for optimal liver
function. Again, the role of this botanical is multifaceted as well. Milk thistle holds tremendous antioxidant potential which is key in detoxification.* Milk thistle is known to provide antioxidant support, healthy membrane integrity and intercellular protein synthesis, healthy levels of fibrotic activity, and inflammatory and immune support.*
Some of the other great botanicals you can use to provide foundational liver support would be dandelion, schisandra and turmeric. Combining those with cruciferous vegetables makes for an airtight strategy for supporting and throwing some love over to the liver. What are some other strategies you use to show your liver some love?
It begins with simple changes...a blog with your patients in mind
Monday, August 11, 2014
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by Sheila Landis
Nutritional Therapist in PortlandThere are an endless number of quick fix options for detoxing, all promising to provide you immediate results. That is your first red flag. Stressing your body into change through crash diets or improper detox programs can actually leave you in worse health than you started. Skip the hype and choose healthy, lasting SUCCESS!
In an ideal world you would limit your exposure to external toxins and support your body’s natural ability to remove internal waste, focusing on a diet high in fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, whole gluten free grains like brown rice, quinoa, millet and others. You wouldn’t consume foods that over stimulate insulin like caffeine, alcohol, refined grains and sugars. You wouldn’t ingest toxins like food additives, food coloring, pesticide residues, hormones and antibiotics from non-organic animal based products. You wouldn’t inhale and absorb contaminants in the form of cleaners, air fresheners, perfumes and lotions. You would rest daily for 7 to 8 hours in a dark room without a multitude of electronic devices interrupting your natural internal electrical communications. You wouldn’t eat late, you would drink plenty of clean filtered water from a glass or aluminum vessel AND, you would exercise – daily.
If this is not you, you may have some residual build-up internally that is calling to you with symptoms. Everything from migraines to IBS can have their roots in less than ideal food and lifestyle choices that have created imbalances and now, symptoms.
Getting your mind in the game is the only way to make change successful and sustained. You must have a strong enough WHY to make change. Make your list of WHY. When you are ready to focus on them, think about making change. Once you have decided that you are ready for change, incorporate as many of these options into your world as possible and reap the benefits that even simple changes can make.
- Don’t eat late – you hit full detox mode approximately 8 hours after your final meal. Don’t shorten the natural defenses by eating late.
- Start everyday with a mug of warm lemon water – you detox until you eat again. Aid the elimination of wastes with the lemon water before breakfast. (The lemon alkalizes the body and encourages the release of bile, one of your natural disposal tools)
- Drink at least 60 ozs of clean filtered water from a non-BPA container every day – water aids the removal of waste. Plastics containing BPA mimic estrogen and mess up your hormones. NEVER reuse soft plastic drinking containers.
- Don’t eat hot food from plastic containers or worse yet, microwave your food in plastic – Heating plastic releases toxins that leach into your food.
- Move – walk, run, swim, yoga, you pick it. Why? Part of your detox system (lymph) has no pump and requires muscle contraction to move the waste and toxins toward an exit.
- Minimize insulin-spiking foods – alcohol, caffeine, sugar, refined grains – insulin is your storage hormone. The more insulin the more storage.
- Minimize your exposure to toxins – toxins are encased in mucous by the body and stored in fat. They appear in extra layers on your waist, thighs and hips.
- Eat real food – the only place you get vitamins and minerals essential to maintaining metabolic function and hormone balance is from fresh food – fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and sea vegetables. Free-range meats and whole grains are a second source.
- Add some probiotics – these are natural healers for the gut. Found in capsule form and fermented foods. Fermented foods include yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kim chi and kombucha. Stick to the plain yogurts and add fruit to sweeten.
- Sleep – your time to detox and rejuvenate. Don’t short yourself here. That equates to 7-8 hours nightly.
- De-stress – stress is now considered the number one cause of disease. Keep your body in a state of panic and it can’t perform its needed functions to stay healthy. The term, “is it worth dying for” should come to mind here.
FoodState is not responsible for content of third party websites. We are making no claims and do not endorse any content on third party websites
by Adam Killpartrick, DC, CNSChiropractor and Nutritional Consultant
We all know the negative impact that chronic stress has on the
body and how it can create, as Dr. Erin Stokes says, ‘cracks in the foundation’
of our health. I recently read a bit of fascinating insight into how stress has
a direct impact on digestion and how this can ultimately weaken our
foundation.
As I perused the latest issue of Emerson Ecologics’ “Element”
Quarterly Newsletter, I read a great article that outlines the connection
between stress and decreased levels of secretory IgA (SIgA). The article, which cites sources from The
Journal of Behavioral Medicine and the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry,
outlines the response to intense or long-standing stress and elevated cortisol
levels and the subsequent depressed levels of SIgA. Obviously, this impacts foundational health
as SIgA plays a critical role in mucosal immunity and is often referred to as
the immune system’s first line of defense. When SIgA is impaired, this has a
downstream effect on the digestive system’s functionality and provides an opportunity
for potentially unhealthy pathogens to thrive.
Simply put, this is why higher concentration Ashwagandha
extracts such as Sensoril and other adaptogenics such as Holy Basil are
included in many GI protocols; to support the adrenal connection to gut
health*. Oregano, Carpylic Acid and probiotics are wonderful options that can
be applied simultaneously to support a balance of gut bacteria while turmeric
and boswellia can support a healthy inflammatory response locally in the gut*.
Nourishing the adrenals while optimizing the microbiome might
end up being the magic combination for the stressed out, digestively impaired
patient who has ‘tried everything’ to feel better.
This scenario of heightened stress and susceptibility to
digestive imbalance is all too often observed in so many of our practices. This
is exactly why we might want to first look to supporting a healthy stress
response in order to provide the best possible support to the GI tract.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food
and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure
or prevent any disease.
Disclaimer: All data and information provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. Innate Response
Formulas makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this blog and will not be liable for the content. All information is provided on an as-is basis.
© 2010 Innate Response
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