Category: Blog

Posted on by

Pumpkin Power: Your Halloween Health Kick

Pumpkin Recipes

It’s the one and only time of year where we see hundreds of pumpkins lining supermarket shelves and garden paths, often with a rather wicked smile grinning back at you. But don’t be fooled, they’re actually one of the greatest superfoods out there. Pumpkin seeds are one of the best plant-based sources of zinc, which works wonders for the human body by improving the immune system, preventing osteoporosis and reducing cholesterol. Pumpkin seeds are also a fantastic source of protein, fibre and magnesium. They help with weight loss, relaxation and increased fertility in both men and women, and their high levels of L-tryptophan make them an effective mood booster – particularly useful as the cold weather sets in!

Extracted from her book, Love Your Bones, Max Tuck provides two delicious recipes to help you make the most of this Halloween superfood:

 

Pumpkin seed pesto

In this recipe pumpkin seeds replace the traditional pine nuts that can be so very expensive. For optimum nutrition and digestibility it is important to soak the pumpkin seeds for a few hours beforehand.

  • In a food processor mix all of the following to a smooth paste:

½ cup soaked pumpkin seeds

¼ cup water

The juice of ½ lemon

Optional: splashes of tamari or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos to taste

A medium clove of garlic

¼ cup of cold-pressed olive oil

 

  • Separately, chop a medium-sized bunch of fresh basil leaves very finely. Stir them into the pumpkin seed mixture or pulse for a second.
  • Serve the pesto stirred into pasta, preferably into ‘courgette pasta’ made from thin shavings of courgette cut with a potato peeler.

 

Pumpkin seed and walnut loaf

2 cups pumpkin seeds, soaked for six to eight hours

2 cups walnuts, soaked overnight

1 cup carrot, chopped

1 cup red pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 cup onion, diced

1 cup parsley, chopped

1 cup dried mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon raw tahini (optional)

Sprig of parsley to garnish

 

  • Process the pumpkin seeds, walnuts and carrot in a food processor until smooth. Remove and place in a bowl.
  • Pulse the remaining ingredients except the parsley together in a food processor until they are of a chunky consistency. Place in the bowl with the pumpkin seed mixture and combine thoroughly.
  • Place on a serving dish and mould into the desired shape. Garnish with parsley.

 

These recipes were taken from Love Your Bones by Max Tuck.

 

Posted on by

The ‘D’ Word: Rethinking Dementia

When the brain is affected by dementia, logical thinking and reasoning ability are affected quite early on. However, the amygdala – the part of the brain that is the integrative centre for emotions, emotional behaviour, and motivation – is less affected. People with dementia (PwD) who have trouble processing logic and reasoning do not have a similar problem with their ability to feel emotion. Indeed, as far as research can show, people with dementia still feel happy, sad, afraid and so on, even after they can no longer speak or recognise people they know well, even when they need total support to live their lives. It seems, though, that most people – including many well-meaning carers – are unable to adjust their own behaviour and thinking to accommodate the continuance of emotional experience, along with the decrease in reasoning ability of the person they care for.

If someone has a broken leg we do not assume that they could walk on it ‘if they tried’. We do not suggest that they listen very carefully whilst we explain how to walk. We do not try to divert their attention so that they can walk without thinking. No. Instead we set the broken bone and maintain it in position with support (a leg-plaster). We allow them to rest the leg. We give them a crutch to aid movement and we accept that walking will be slow and difficult until the leg is healed. Similarly, if someone has part of their brain which is not functioning we should make allowances. We should try to keep the parts of the brain that do function in as good order as possible – by encouraging social interaction, physical exercise and general health. We should allow the brain to ‘rest’ when it needs to by not demanding actions which are no longer essential. We should supply a ‘crutch’ using memory aids, providing unobtrusive help and support. We accept that everything cannot be as it once was because this brain is not what it once was.

It is important, though, that society should recognise the relative importance of the emotions which come to predominate when logical thought and thought processing are deteriorating. Society in general does not much like domination by the emotions. ‘Civilised’ people should learn to control emotion and apply logic and reason to manage their everyday life, it is thought. But what if we can no longer use our logic and reasoning to help us come to terms with emotions? Suppose we are unable to understand and work out why we feel sad or happy? Imagine if we feel these emotions overwhelmingly, but we are unable to deal with them by a change of scene, by talking through our feelings, by taking actions to alleviate the misery or express the happiness. Imagine being no longer able to speak coherently enough to tell anyone how frightened you feel or how angry. What might you do? How might you try to express yourself? Perhaps you would try to hide somewhere, or to run away and escape. Or you might shout and get angry. Perhaps if no one made any effort to understand, you might try to use physical methods to show them how you feel.

This blog is taken from The ‘D’ Word: Rethinking Dementia by Mary Jordan and Dr Noel Collins

Posted on by

The PK Cookbook: PK bread recipe

PK Cookbook

The single biggest reason for lapsing from the PK diet (Paleo-ketogenic) is the absence of bread. To secure the diet for life you must first make PK bread. I have searched and nothing is currently available commercially which passes muster. Loaves will become available as demand builds, but in the meantime you have to make your own bread. If you do not have the energy to do this yourself but have any friends or family offering to help you, then top of the list must be, ‘Please make my daily bread’. PK bread consists of just linseed, sunshine salt (see Chapter 13, page 93) and water.  Americans, and others, may be more familiar with linseed being referred to as flax or flaxseed or common flax. There is technically a subtle difference – flax is grown as a fibre plant that is used for linen.  Linseed is grown for its seed. The flax plant is taller than linseed and is ‘pulled’ by hand, or nowadays by machine.

How to make a PK bread loaf in five minutes

Please forgive the tiresome detail, but you must succeed with your first loaf because then you will be encouraged to carry on. I can now put this recipe together in five minutes (proper minutes that is – not the ‘and this is what I did earlier’ TV version). I have spent the last six months making a loaf almost every morning – there have been many revisions and the version below is the current recipe which I think is perfect!

Equipment needed:

  • Cooking oven that gets to at least 220 degrees Centigrade
  • Weighing scales
  • Nutribullet (or similarly effective grinding machine – do not attempt to do this with a pestle and mortar; I know – I have tried and failed)
  • Mixing bowl
  • A 500 gram (or one pound in weight) loaf baking tin
  • Measuring jug
  • Cup in which to weigh the linseed
  • Wooden spoon
  • Wire rack for cooling
  • Paper towels

Ingredients needed:

  • 250 grams of whole linseed (use dark or golden linseed grains)
  • One teaspoon of sunshine salt (can be purchased from www.sales@drmyhill.co.uk) or unrefined sea salt
  • Dollop of coconut oil or lard
Actions Notes
Take 250 grams of whole linseed You could purchase linseed in 250 gram packs and that saves weighing it. Use dark or golden linseed grains – the golden grains produce a brown loaf, the dark a black one.Do not use commercially ground linseed – the grinding is not fine enough, also it will have absorbed some water already and this stops it sticking together in the recipe.If you purchase linseed in bulk then you must weigh it really accurately in order to get the proportion of water spot on.
No raising agent is required.
Pour half the linseed into the Nutribullet/grinder together with one rounded teaspoon of PK ‘Sunshine’ salt (see page 93).
Grind into a fine flour.		 Use the flat blade to get the finest flour.Grind until the machine starts to groan and sweat with the effort! You need a really fine flour to make a good loaf. This takes about 30 seconds.The finer you can grind the flour the better it sticks together and the better the loaf.I do this in two batches of 125 grams or the blades ‘hollow out’ the mix so that half does not circulate and grind fully.
Pour the ground flour into a mixing bowl.
Repeat the above with the second half of the seeds and add to the mixing bowl. Whilst this is grinding, measure the water you need.
Add in exactly 270 ml water (not a typo – 270 it is). Chuck it all in at once; do not dribble it in.Stir it with a wooden spoon and keep stirring. It will thicken over the course of 30 seconds.Keep stirring until it becomes sticky and holds together in a lump. The amount of water is critical. When it comes to cooking, I am a natural chucker in of ingredients and hope for the best. But in this case, you must measure.Initially it will look as if you have added far too much water, but keep stirring.
Use your fingers to scoop up a dollop of coconut oil or lard. Use this to grease the baking tin. Your hands will be covered in fat which means you can pick up your sticky dough without it sticking to your hands
Use your hands to shape the dough until it has a smooth surface.
Drop it into the greased baking tin		 Spend about 30 seconds doing this. Do not be tempted to knead or fold the loaf or you introduce layers of fat which stop it sticking to itself. This helps prevent the loaf cracking as it rises and cooks (although I have to say it does not matter two hoots if it does. It just looks more professional if it does not!)
Let the loaf ‘rest’ for a few minutes …so it fully absorbs all the water and becomes an integral whole. This is not critical but allows enough time to…
…rub any excess fat into your skin, where it will be absorbed There is no need to wash your hands after doing this – the basis for most hand creams is coconut oil or lard. (Yes, lard. It amuses me that rendered animal fat is a major export from our local knacker man to the cosmetic industry.)
Put the loaf into the hot oven – at least 220°C (430°F) – for 60 minutes Set a timer or you will forget – I always do!I do not think the temperature is too critical – but it must be hot enough to turn the water in the loaf into steam because this is what raises it. I cook on a wood-fired stove and the oven temperature is tricky to be precise with. That does not seem to matter so long as it is really hot. Indeed, I like the flavour of a slightly scorched crust.
Wipe out the mixing bowl with a paper towel. This cleaning method is quick and easy. The slightly greasy surface which remains will be ideal for the next loaf. The point here is that fat cannot be fermented by bacteria or yeast and does not need washing off mixing and cooking utensils. My frying pan has not been washed for over 60 years. I know this because my mother never washed it either.
When the timer goes off, take the loaf out of the oven, tip it out and allow it to cool on a wire rack.
Once cool keep it in a plastic bag in the fridge.		 It lasts a week kept like this and freezes well too.It is best used sliced thinly with a narrow-bladed serrated knife.

Fry your freshly made PK bread in coconut oil or lard and add the following for a delicious PK breakfast;

  • 2-3 boiled eggs
  • Smoked fish, tinned fish, tinned cod’s roe
  • Paté or rillette
  • Nut butter
  • Vegan cheese (check the carb content of this) and tomato
  • Coyo yoghurt

This blog was taken from Sarah Myhill and Craig Robinson’s new book The PK Cookbook

Posted on by

What is ill health and what is good health?

health, chronic, disease, nutrition

Contributory factors to ill health

The first and most important factor is what we put into our bodies to help renew our cells and build new ones – the food we eat or don’t eat. After all, if you think about it, every single piece of your body from your eyelashes and heart, to your lungs and immune cells is built of food – food that you eat on a daily basis. Food is not only your fuel but forms the building blocks of good health. However, there are other contributory factors to poor health, such as poor digestion and poor absorption of the food we eat, the stress we experience, genetics, hormonal issues, overgrowth of unfriendly organisms and a lack of good bacteria in our guts to name but a few.

If you have seen your doctor or a specialist, you may have found that chronic (long-term) health problems are usually treated with drugs such as statins, antacids, beta-blockers, antidepressants, sleeping pills and steroids. However, this approach mainly involves treating the symptoms of an illness, or a degenerative disease, rather than focusing on resolving the underlying causes; it does not help you get better and more often than not you may find that your health gets worse.

Being chronically ill can mean a life-sentence of taking drugs. Often, patients find they have to take more and more drugs as time goes on, to try to keep their symptoms at bay without their ever being able to get well again or get to the bottom of why they are ill. The drugs may cause them to feel worse, or interfere with the way their body absorbs nutrients; they may deplete the good bacteria in their gut, which can make matters worse in the long term, even if short-term relief from symptoms may result from medicines such as painkillers or antacids.

Having a chronic illness may make you feel that you are living a life where you are half dead, living constantly with pain, and feeling depressed because you often feel so ill. Alternatively, depression may be your health problem – a depression that is dark and unrelenting, and is addressed by a range of drugs that do not seem to get to the root cause of the problem Your movement may be restricted, making it difficult to exercise or you may get puffed from any exercise you try to take. Whatever you are suffering from, you may be finding that you are not able to participate fully in and enjoy life.

So what is good health?

Ask yourself these questions (yes/no)

  • Is your life, whatever your age, full of vigour or do you feel youthful and energetic most of the time?
  • Do you wake up most mornings looking forward to the day in front of you?
  • Do you look each morning to eating well and to giving your body the best nutrition it can possibly have?
  • Does your gut feel calm and content and free of any digestive distress?
  • Can you move easily and do you feel flexible?
  • Do you feel that all of your joints, muscles and bones are strong, moving well and you are free of pain most of the time?
  • Are you free from headaches or migraine most of the time?
  • Do you go to bed feeling pleasantly tired and sleepy but not exhausted and drained?
  • Are you free of any chronic (long-term) health conditions or degenerative disease?

If you answered ‘Yes’ to most of these questions, you are in great health, but I suspect that, if you have brought this book, you probably have answered ‘No’ to the majority of them. Perhaps write down your answers to these questions, and use them to create goals to work towards. With the help of this book, you can achieve these goals.

Ask yourself:

‘What does good health and remission mean to me?’

‘What does the lack of good health feel like on a daily basis?’

‘What would it feel like to move without chronic pain – to be able to walk the dog and not feel exhausted, to have sufficient energy to get through each day without crashing out?’

To illustrate what this can mean, let me tell you the story of Robert in the next chapter. Robert went from being in chronic pain and utterly fatigued, to running half-marathons after nine months of following a functional nutrition programme.

Summary

Good health is living a strong life without chronic or degenerative illness and being able to answer ‘Yes’ to most of the above questions in the Table whatever your age.

This blog was taken from Fleur Brown’s new book, ‘Beat Chronic Disease: The nutrition solution’

Posted on by

Eating Your Way to Better Brain Health

brain, food, health, diet

Brain food

There are some nutrients that are worthy of separate mention in relation to the central nervous system. The living foods diet will be high in all of these nutrients, but the following, in my opinion, are worth additional overview.

Thiamine-containing foods

Your brain relies on thiamine (vitamin B1) to produce neurotransmitters, which are needed to send messages throughout your nervous system. Without adequate thiamine, people can experience brain-related symptoms such as loss of memory and even brain damage. Conventional eaters are usually told to eat cereals and grains that are minimally processed, such as whole-wheat breads or brown rice, and to eat fortified cereals. However, always looking for ways in which to upgrade, I prefer the sources found in a living foods regime, in which the sprouted small grains such as quinoa, amaranth and teff serve your needs. Soaked nuts and sprouted legumes are also good dietary sources.

Potassium-containing foods

Your brain relies on potassium to generate the chemical reactions that create energy and allow your brain cells to communicate. If you don’t get enough potassium in your daily diet, you can experience symptoms such as mental confusion and even an irregular heartbeat. Fruits and vegetables tend to be highest in potassium; we all think of bananas as being high in potassium, but all the dark green foods are great sources.

Zinc-containing foods

Your body requires zinc each day to improve your memory and keep you thinking clearly, and a good source is soaked pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seed butter. Eating a handful of these seeds, ideally soaked before eating them, can give you all the zinc you need to boost your brain power. Sprouted lentils and chick peas (garbanzo beans) are also good sources of zinc. See how easy it is?

High-calcium foods

While you may think of calcium as a mineral that strengthens your bones and teeth, your brain requires calcium to transmit nerve signals. On the living foods diet we are never thinking about dairy products as a source of calcium, so remember that dark green leafy foods such as kale will give you plenty of calcium, as will raw tahini.

Magnesium-containing foods

Magnesium, a crucial dietary mineral, helps maintain proper cardiovascular system function, affects energy metabolism and plays a part in bone health. Magnesium also helps maintain the health of the nervous system. In their book, Psychiatric Side Effects of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications: Recognition and Management, doctors Thomas Markham Brown and Alan Stoudemire report that magnesium has an inhibitory effect on certain neurotransmitters, the brain chemicals responsible for signal transmission between nerve cells. Specifically, magnesium helps with the manufacture of dopamine, which has a calming effect on the brain. As previously stated, any food rich in chlorophyll, such as the dark leafy greens, will provide plenty of magnesium.

Severe magnesium deficiencies have previously been considered to be uncommon in developed nations, because so many available foods contain magnesium. However, many people do not regularly get adequate magnesium from their diet, and it is now thought that up to 80 per cent of the population may be deficient in this mineral. A magnesium deficiency can have a profound impact on the functioning of the nervous system. Low levels of magnesium are associated with symptoms of anxiety, irritability, agitation insomnia and confusion, according to the University of Maryland Medical Centre. A review published in the December 1992 issue of the journal Magnesium Research reported that magnesium deficiency can result in neurological symptoms such as hyperexcitability, convulsions and a number of psychiatric symptoms, ranging from apathy to psychosis. Magnesium deficiency may also cause seizures. ME Morris, the author of the study, suggests that some of these symptoms may be reversed with magnesium supplementation.

Magnesium supplementation may help disorders associated with the nervous system. A study published in the October 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition reports that magnesium supplementation, combined with vitamin B-6, helped to correct symptoms of hyperexcitability, including aggression and inattention, in children. All 52 study participants experienced benefits from magnesium and vitamin B-6 treatment. A 2006 study in the journal Medical Hypotheses, reported several case studies in which magnesium supplementation benefited patients suffering from ‘major depression, traumatic brain injury, headache, suicidal tendencies, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, postpartum depression, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco abuse, hypersensitivity to calcium, short-term memory loss and IQ loss’. That’s a wide range of effects, indicating just how widespread this mineral is in its biochemical reactions.

The key with magnesium supplementation is to ensure that it is bioavailable (that is, that your body can absorb and make use of it). If you are not eating sufficient leafy greens, not drinking sufficient green juices and not using wheatgrass juice regularly, or have been shown to be deficient on blood testing, I suggest using a transdermal magnesium spray for best absorption.

This blog was taken from ‘The Whole Body Solution: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Health and Anti-ageing’, by Max Tuck.

Posted on by

How to cope with IBD at work

How to cope with IBD at work

Sometimes it seems that living with IBD is a full-time job (albeit one with zero pay or benefits!). Time spent at the hospital, recovering from flares and trying to live a healthy life can all add up. Unfortunately, most of us are not millionaires and work is a necessity, and for lots of us a fulfilling part of our lives. Working with IBD isn’t always easy but for the vast majority of us it is possible. However, you may need to talk to your employer and have adaptions made.

 

Be honest

It is very important that you are honest with your employer about your condition and what it involves. IBD, like any chronic illness, is covered under the 2010 Equality Act since it is a physical and long-term impairment (definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010, 2015). This means employers must make necessary adaptions to help you in your role. This could include flexible working hours, access to a disabled toilet or a fridge to store your medicine in. Most employers are accommodating if you talk to them and explain what your condition actually entails (and if this is disclosed at interview, employers cannot discriminate against you in the recruitment process).

 

Be realistic

Many people with inflammatory bowel disease have really high expectations of themselves, which is also reflected in their careers. However, it is important to reflect on your career path and whether it is adaptable to life with IBD. Does it involve lots of travel? Is it stressful? Are you often on the go? Having IBD doesn’t mean giving up on your career dreams but just making sure the job is right for you.

 

Be informed

Reading the paperwork and the terms and conditions that comes with a job is more important than ever with IBD. Here are some things you need to find out:

  • What is the sick pay entitlement?
  • What is the policy for long-term periods of sickness?
  • How flexible are the working hours?
  • If you are working abroad, is medical insurance included and does this include pre-existing conditions?
  • Will you get regular breaks? (This can be easy for office workers; not so easy for those in retail.)
  • Is there the possibility of reduced hours or going part-time further down the line?

Keep records

It may be worth having a notebook to keep a list of any time you have had to take off work for IBD and the corresponding symptoms and hospital trips.

 

My experience of working with IBD

I am a teacher by trade and have taught both in the UK and abroad. In every job, I’ve been honest about my conditions from day one and luckily all my employers have been great. When I was on infliximab, my employers were great at giving me time off to go to hospital appointments and in my previous role I had surgery and the school arranged for me to come back on a phased return. It can be really hard teaching with IBD – I have had days where I felt like I wanted to faint in front of a class – but luckily most of the time I’m fine. In some ways doing a demanding job means I often forget about my symptoms, but I have had to dash out of class on a few occasions. I think this is why talking with colleagues about your condition is so important – it has meant they have been able to quickly step in if needed. Yet over the years, I think I’ve also become more realistic about my teaching career and this year I’ve reduced my workload to three days a week, aiming to spend more time on my health and my writing. I don’t see this as a step down but a necessary adaption to help me live as balanced a life as possible; hopefully I can combine the security of a teaching job with my other passions in life – writing and nutrition.

This blog is taken from Managing IBD: A balanced guide to inflammatory bowel disease by Jenna Farmer.

Posted on by

Back Pain: Myths and Misconceptions

Chapter 4

Myths and Misconceptions

Back pain, as the statistics demonstrate, is extremely common. In the same way that everybody has a view and advice to give on the best way to cope with and eliminate the symptoms of a head cold, personal experiences of back pain also bring forth theories and guidance without necessarily the professional knowledge to support it. From this inevitably grow myths and misconceptions which, although given with good intention, give rise to a great deal of conflicting information and confusion.
There is also much evidence to suggest that the way in which we overwork our spines and the connecting muscles can do us a great deal of harm. Add this to the many misunderstandings about back care and we not only inhibit our ability to recover speedily from injury, but can also subject ourselves to unnecessary weakening of our back muscles. How to assess the risk involved in a manual task and carry it out safely is more fully discussed in Chapter 8; here I will tackle the most common misunderstandings about what is good and bad for backs.

‘Put your back into it’

Seldom do the sayings and proverbs of past generations convey anything but good sound advice but one such phrase, ‘Put your back into it’, can certainly be misinterpreted. This saying might suggest that increasing physical effort by using enormous force to push, pull or lift something, will help the desired task to be better achieved. It is more likely, however, to have the opposite effect and even give you an injury. Its inference, that the spine is always the strongest part of the body, sometimes leads us to undertake physical effort far beyond our safe capability.

The following commonly believed myths and misconceptions lead many of us to take the wrong sort of action. This is usually at a time when we most need to follow the best possible advice.

‘You should sleep on a hard mattress’

How often have we been enticed to purchase an extra firm ‘orthopaedic’ mattress, believing it to be good for our backs? A mattress that is too hard and does not yield slightly to the contours of our spine can put considerable strain on that small area in the lower lumber region which is left with no base on which to rest. The back muscles, when they should be completely relaxed, are therefore given the work of supporting the weight of the lower organs of the body throughout the night. This can result in stiffness and pain in the mornings. A slightly gentler mattress, therefore, will not only provide consistent support along the length of the natural curvature of the spine, but will aid more restful sleep.

It is important when buying a mattress to take plenty of time to try it out for comfort before making your choice. Lie on the bed. All good stores provide shoe protection on their display beds. Mattresses should be neither too hard nor too soft. Slide a hand under the small of your back and feel if there is a gap. Lie on your side or in the position which you normally find most comfortable at night to establish whether the whole line of your body is straight and will be adequately supported during the hours of rest and sleep. A mattress which sags is equally bad for you. Spending many hours curved like the shape of a slice of melon will mean that you will not only start the next day with a stiff, aching back but with lethargy as well from insufficient quality sleep.
It is a very good idea to try a range of beds from different manufacturers before making your choice. A bed should be one of our most important purchases, especially as we spend almost one third of our lives in bed, so don’t be afraid to be fussy. You will be spending many hours of every day either appreciating or regretting your eventual choice.

‘I hurt my back because I got tired’

One fact which often causes surprise is the time of day when you are most likely to strain your back. It is not always in the late evening when you are tired, but more likely to be in the early morning before the muscles have had time to warm up. The pain, however, may not be felt until later in the day or even when you eventually sit down to rest. Unfortunately, before embarking on household tasks or ‘DIY’ jobs, we seldom consider that we should ‘warm up’ our muscles like a sportsman. It may seem a little extreme to be stretching and carrying out a few exercises before hanging wallpaper or digging the garden, but it can be the difference between a successful day and one which results in misery.

‘I’ve put my back out’

Another misconception is that a sudden, severe onset of back pain is always as the result of a ‘slipped disc’. Intervertebral discs do not just carelessly slip out of position and in fact less than 5% of all back pain suffered is the result of a disc becoming displaced or squeezed between the bones of the spine. The vast majority of back pain is caused by the distressing spasm resulting from over-stretched muscles.

However, if the symptoms appear more serious than just muscle spasm with generalised aching, and involve leg pain, severe immobility or numbness/pins and needles down the legs, then the possibility of a prolapsed disc should be considered. This should be examined by a medical practitioner as the situation requires accurate diagnosis before embarking on any programme of rehabilitation. Very occasionally, as the result of severe trauma such as a fall or sporting injury, a fracture dislocation is possible, but this is a matter requiring urgent medical attention.

‘I need to lie on the floor for six weeks’

At one time, when back pain struck, it was common practice to lie on the floor for perhaps up to six weeks, or to go to bed and stay there until the pain subsided. Although initially rest and analgesics (pain-killers) for a day or two will help to relax the injured muscles and relieve spasm, prolonged bed rest has now been proven to worsen the pain and delay recovery. Walking and gentle exercise should be resumed as soon as they can be tolerated. If the spasm is so bad that walking is too painful, frequent stretching and rotation of your ankles will help to stimulate the circulation to your legs and lower part of your body.
‘I’m too young to get back ache’

A popular misconception held by young and fit individuals is that they cannot harm their backs because they are supple and their muscles well-developed. Although youth and fitness are of enormous benefit, nobody can be said to be exempt from a back injury. A single movement repetitively carried out, such as stooping to polish a car, or maintaining an awkward position, for example, sitting slumped in a chair, can bring about the first signs of weakness.

Contrary to common belief, back pain is not infrequent in 30-50 year olds. This is often a time when poor posture and inappropriate lifting techniques which have persisted during the earlier years eventually reveal a physical weakness in the back muscles. Good practice learned in childhood is the best protection against harm. In later years, although natural degenerative processes are responsible for a slight shortening of the spine, reduced muscle tone and decreased bone strength and thickness, elderly people are less likely to over-estimate their ability to move or lift a heavy item. Young men in particular are often reluctant to ask for assistance with a heavy load, perhaps fearing that to do so may appear weak in the presence of their peers.

‘I hurt my back once, so I know it is weak’

Back problems developed in youth or middle age do not have to be an indication that it is the start of a slippery downhill slide into a world of disability, walking sticks or wheelchairs. Strengthening exercises, improved posture and more accurately assessing the tasks to be carried out, will help to prevent recurrence.

‘If I ignore it, it will go away’

Back pain is not something in your imagination or which can easily be ‘worked off’ by persevering with a strenuous physical task. All pain is real and a symptom that something is wrong. By ignoring the pain and continuing with the activity in the hope that eventually it will go away, will more likely exacerbate the problem and delay healing of the strained tissues.

‘An operation is the only answer’

Unfortunately there is no ‘quick fix’ for back pain. Surgery to the back does not guarantee to cure all types of back pain in the long term. Statistics show that up to 30% of patients may suffer in some way from the effects of the surgery or may not even gain adequate relief from their original backache. Your orthopaedic surgeon will discuss both the need and implications of any kind of invasive procedure to make sure that you fully understand the anticipated outcome of such surgery. He will also want to be sure that all other more conservative treatments have been thoroughly explored first.

‘You can see that I am in pain’

There are very few signs, if any, to the casual observer that someone is suffering from constant, nagging back pain. Recovering from back pain can take anything from a few days to several weeks. This sometimes means that sympathy and patience can wear a little thin, even drawing accusations of laziness or being ‘workshy’. Back pain is not, however, a problem that you have to live with. There are many solutions, appropriate to individual circumstances, including both orthodox medical treatments and alternative therapies, which can be very helpful.

Positive conclusion

Back pain that is not actively challenged is unlikely to be a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ event. It is important to keep that in mind – it is not a myth! However, when life is back to normal and full mobility restored, the whole event and its accompanying misery may be quickly forgotten. Do not drop your guard – it is a recognised fact that following one episode of back pain, you are three to four times more likely to suffer its wrath again. Therefore, as soon as full mobility has been restored is the time to make the conscious decision to improve your everyday posture and lifting techniques. This makes muscle-strengthening exercises (see chapter 12) all the more important to prevent that recurrence. First, however, we will look at the causes of back pain.

This blog is taken from ‘The Smart Guide to Back Care’ by Janet Wakley.

Posted on by

Nutritional approaches to CFS

Food choice and quality

The value of choosing, where possible, locally grown or produced food has been much reviewed and generally agreed upon in recent years. We all have access to news items, television programmes, magazine articles and, for many of us, internet information on this subject. The value and availability of local, seasonal produce have been discussed at length. Many authors in Europe and America have written controversial books covering such subjects as poor food quality, food commercialisation, food additives, pressure advertising and many other contentious topics. A selection of my favourite authors includes: Michael Moss, Bee Wilson, John Humphreys, Ben Goldacre, Barry Groves, Stanley Feldman with Vincent Marks, and Eric Schlosser.

Meanwhile our chefs and celebrity cooks have made us more aware of our poor-quality school meals (Jamie Oliver), the use of country produce (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall), or simply good quality food and healthy cooking methods (Gary Rhodes, Nigel Slater, Simon Hopkinson etc). Having scanned today’s main TV channels (Free-Sat) today being a typical quiet Thursday in March, I have identified 13 programmes whose subject matter is cooking or food. This does not include the radio programmes.

With such unrelenting advice on food selection, preparation and cooking it is difficult to believe that an unhealthy diet is possible in the UK. Although media and governmental advice on ‘healthy’ eating can be conflicting, we are all aware that refined, processed and generally harmful ‘junk food’ is best avoided. At the same time, I frequently encounter patients who admit that their diets are dreadful; their excuses range from lack of time to dislike of cooking or shopping, or simply a result of craving all the wrong foods.
Regrettably, a major motivation for many people’s food selection is a result of economic necessity. Such items as convenience foods, TV snacks, cakes, biscuits, crisps, chocolate, cola-drinks and alcohol feature as essential components in many weekly housekeeping bills. Quality proteins, in particular beef and fish, are beyond the household budgets of many families. The failure of many schools to give basic education in cookery is also very much to blame. It would be so easy for all teenagers (both sexes) to have basic cookery skills taught to them whilst at school, to form a basis upon which to draw in their adult life. It is common knowledge that many school children do not know where milk, eggs and common vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes etc) have come from, or how they are grown.

I have already outlined my opposition to high-carbohydrate diets and criticised the ‘healthy eating’ maxim that advocates five portions of fruit and vegetables daily. Such disorders as syndrome X, diabetes, obesity and a huge range of health problems can result from such diets. I have emphasised the value of eating proteins at each meal and also animal fats as part of a recommended diet. There is only one advantage to a high-carbohydrate diet: it is inexpensive. A diet rich in cereal foods and root vegetables has been defined as ‘peasant food’. Protein foods have for centuries been the preferred food of the middle and upper classes. One only has to look at the favoured food of different countries and cultures to identify this class bias. Obvious examples of ‘people’s foods’ are rice in China, cereals and pulses in India, pasta in the Mediterranean area, wheat in Europe and America and potatoes in Ireland. Carbohydrates are cheap, filling, tasty and usually easy to prepare.

This has made the current official recommendation for the diet to consist of 50–70% carbohydrates all the easier for people to adopt. However, it is seen by many as a major cause of the obesity, diabetes and heart disease epidemics that afflict the so-called civilised nations. Perhaps CFS should be added to the above list; certainly the prevalence of chronic fatigue, with the often related symptom of depression, is increasing each year.

The treatment of many health problems requires nutritional intervention and advice. Problems that are directly food related include gastro-intestinal complaints, leaky gut, candidiasis and food allergies, but systemic general health problems may also benefit from this approach.

Food digestion

Having reviewed the relative value of fresh, locally produced food versus processed ‘junk’ food, the next topic must be the part digestion plays in the breakdown of our health.
I want to start by considering several, generally held misconceptions concerning our digestion:

1. It doesn’t matter what we eat, as rubbish is eliminated and all the nutrients are absorbed.

2. The typical symptoms of indigestion – such as stomach fullness and wind, diarrhoea and/or constipation, heartburn and nausea – are all transient symptoms resulting from hurried meals or stress and are not serious health disorders.

3. The symptoms of indigestion can usually be solved by ant-acids, Immodium, paracetamol and other self-prescribed medicines. Advice or treatment is rarely necessary.

These misconceptions may be reassuring, but they prevent us from seeing what the problems really are. Digestive disorders, as with many ailments, do not always present matching symptoms. Achlorydria (lack of stomach acid), reduced pancreatic enzyme status, leaky gut, and low short-chain fatty acid levels do not present predictable diagnosable symptoms. To put it simply, a lot can go wrong before you are aware of the problem. This can result in a situation where quite serious gut problems can develop over several years before real action is taken to accurately diagnose and effectively treat the condition. I have a patient who had been prescribed ant-acids for eight years, for an acid stomach, before a gastroscopy was requested and a stomach tumour diagnosed. This resulted in surgery to remove one third of his stomach, yet this life-saving emergency surgery was preceded only by occasional heartburn and nausea until a few days before the stomach operation, when he developed severe blood loss and black stools. Not surprisingly, he had no awareness of the potential seriousness of his condition.

The gastro-intestinal tract is vital for energy production for our entire metabolism. The efficiency of every body organ can be compromised by digestive disorders. Naturopathic medicine, or ‘functional medicine’ as it has been termed in America, has promoted many clinical approaches designed to treat gastrointestinal disorders.

A brief review of these diets and treatment methods will serve to emphasise the value of the drug-free systems that have been prescribed to normalise gut function. I do not endorse all of these regimes, but I do agree with the common theme of non-invasive therapies to treat indigestion, without recourse to drug-based symptom relief.

This blog is taken from Why Am I So Exhausted? by Martin Budd.

Posted on by

How food influences your mood

How Food Influences Your Mood

Learning to feel differently about food includes recognising the link between nutrition and mental wellbeing. There is no point in achieving a slimmer body if the price is depression and increased anxiety. Scientific researchers suggest people should be cautious in how they reduce their calorie intake while attempting to slim down as research findings show that sudden changes in nutrition, or reducing certain nutrients in a diet, can result in a worsening of depressive symptoms. (Sathyanarayana et al, 2008)

A study in the British Journal of Psychiatry (Akbaraly et al, 2009) also found evidence that eating a wide range of real foods versus processed foods of poor nutritional quality increased the likelihood of depression.

When people abruptly stop eating large amounts of processed foods containing unhealthy fats, and loaded with sugar, they can often experience withdrawal symptoms similar to those of going “cold turkey” from drugs. The withdrawal symptoms can last for several days and for some people the symptoms of headache, muscle pain and feeling below par can be powerful enough for them to return to their old eating habits just to make them feel “normal” again. Stick with the process, though, as the rewards will far outweigh any temporary discomfort.

Other nutritional deficiencies have a part to play in feeling low or even depressed. These include deficiencies in zinc, omega-3 fats, B vitamins, B6 and B12 especially, and vitamin D.

Missing meals can cause a dip in blood sugar levels, resulting in the release of adrenaline which increases feelings of anxiety and can even be a trigger for raised levels of anxiety generally.

Disordered eating often involves binge eating. This causes physical discomfort but can also often be a trigger for feelings of despair and shame. If overeating happens late at night, the inevitable bloating can interfere with the ability to sleep, again lowering mood.

Following a restrictive diet where carbohydrates are eliminated has an impact on serotonin levels in the brain that can lead to feelings of depression. We encourage eating a balance of complex, unrefined starchy carbohydrates such as vegetables and protein and healthy fats to maintain a positive mood, and promote satiety.

Making changes towards healthier food choices is obviously beneficial on many different levels. The changeover can happen during a radical period when mass changes are made, or one meal at a time, gradually reducing the amount of processed sugars and high fat foods that are eaten. How this is tackled is down to personal choice, and what best suits each individual.

In essence, a healthy diet will not cause ecstatic happiness but a poor diet could be a contributing factor to feeling low, so it’s important for mental wellbeing to eat a wide variety of real foods.

This blog is taken from How to Feel Differently About Food by Sally Baker and Liz Hogon. You can read the first chapter here!

Posted on by

So, what is the Paleo diet?

What is the paleo diet

First, it is important to state there is no such thing as ‘the Paleo diet’ per se. Pre-agricultural diets were regionally variable and seasonally cyclical. In colder climates, they tended to be meat-based as the land was either under snow for much of the year or of poor quality and only suited to grazing. In warmer regions fewer red meats were eaten and fruits and plants dominated. Although the ancestral diet may have varied in content, it was more nutrient dense than that of today. So, although no standardised Paleo diet exists, the Paleo diet is usually defined by what it excludes, and is generally accepted as being, legume and dairy free.

It is thought that the advent of agriculture around 10,000 years ago marked the demise of the nomadic way of life, giving way to the cultivation of grains and legumes and the domestication of animals for milk. Archaeological remains suggest an abrupt decline in health at this time. Loss of stature, arthritis and other diseases associated with poor mineralisation seem to coincide with the introduction of grains into the diet. Ten thousand years might seem like a long time to those of us who hope to live to around 80 but is, in fact, the evolutionary equivalent of the ‘blink of an eye’, and would not have given us enough time to adapt.

However, there is archaeological evidence that some hunter-gatherers were eating grains much earlier than this. It seems the closer to the equator, the greater the intake of plant-based foods, which in some cases may have included wild grains. This may explain why gluten (and dairy) intolerance is more prevalent in colder latitudes, and why those with Scandinavian or north European ancestry are poorly suited to a vegetarian diet. What the hunter gatherer diet seemed to have in common was that they were highly nutritious and all contained meat or fish. They provided good levels of minerals, saturated fat and fat-soluble vitamins, with little or no grain or dairy and variable amounts of protein, most of which was derived from meat.

Much of the diet was raw which further increased the nutrient density and provided good levels of fibre. I suspect that rather than being historically accurate, the modern assumption that the Paleo diet was a high protein diet results from the misplaced fat and carb phobia diet that is still influencing nutritional thinking today. In fact, the food group most highly prized in the ancestral diet was saturated fat. Carbs have been given a bad press because they are nearly always derived from grains, a food group that causes problems in a number of people.

However, carbs from vegetables and fruits are much easier for the body to handle. A diet high in raw vegetables and salads does not have the same effect as a diet high in cereals, although both are high in carbohydrate. Whilst it may seem impossible to imagine a diet without grains, they are easily replaced by alternatives such as vegetable pastas, and coconut, seed and nut flours in baking and break making. Nuts can be fermented into cheeses, coconut cream into yoghurt and soft cheese, and the milk from nuts and coconuts can be made into delicious desserts and ice-creams, making Paleo eating varied and enjoyable.

What is also known about the Paleo diet is that it contained virtually no sugar. Refining has enabled us to concentrate sugars in quantities that our bodies are ill equipped to handle. For example, a soft drink contains the equivalent of eight and a half feet of sugar cane – an impossible quantity to get through in its unrefined state. The high proportion of carbohydrates in the modern diet compounds our inbuilt predilection for sweet foods.

Until technology got involved in food production, foods that were bitter were generally poisonous and those that were sweet were usually safe to eat, but that doesn’t apply today since many foods are laced with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners – and they definitely aren’t safe to eat. Our first food, breast milk, contains a sugar called lactose and thus the early association between feeding and being loved is established before we are capable of conscious thought. Eating is associated with emotion, and this is one of the reasons sweet foods can be comforting, and why we can feel deprived and miserable when trying to give them up.

Despite their pervasive presence at nearly every meal today, in Europe and America grains were only elevated from animal fodder to dietary staple at the time of the industrial revolution, cultivating in us a taste for stodgy, high-carbohydrate foods, which has been a contributory factor to the obesity epidemic. The Arabic nations seem to have been eating grains the longest, and their wheat sensitivity and carbohydrate intolerance are rare. The rapid increase in degenerative disease that has characterised the last 100 years demonstrates that most of us have struggled to adapt. It is estimated that 80 per cent of cancers are related in some way to diet, and it is probably evident to you that much of the food we eat today could not be described as healthy.

In fact, much of it wouldn’t be recognised by even our recent ancestors. Not only are the foods themselves different – the result of selective cultivation or the products of technology – but the ratios of fat, protein and carbohydrate have been reversed. Fat phobia flourishes, and grains – previously dismissed as mostly animal feed, as I have said – now form the foundation of almost everything we eat. In addition, some of what passes for food isn’t food at all but a concoction of chemicals, conceived in the laboratory rather than grown on the land. Modern grass eaters, particularly cows, may not have had access to grass, and non-organic crops will have been forced to grow in demineralised soils, which is why today’s produce contains an average of 80 per cent less nutrients than it did only 50 years ago.

This blog is taken from Go Paleo – Feeding the Urban Caveman by Eve Gilmore. You can read the first chapter here!