Diet Soda and Aspartame

diet sodaI saw another pleasant surprise in today’s Wall Street Journal:  sales of diet sodas fell for the ninth straight year because more consumers are increasingly becoming wary of aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in diet sodas “despite decades of studies by the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies”.

Some consumers are finally catching on to the fact that just because the FDA says it’s safe, doesn’t mean it really is.  Perhaps they understand that the fox is guarding the henhouse and that these agencies often don’t look out for our best interests, as we would expect that they do.

Diet Soda and Aspartame

Aspartame, a genetically modified ingredient used as an artificial sweetener in diet sodas, converts to formaldehyde in the body and has been linked to migraines, fibromyalgia and even seizures. Formaldehyde is a carcinogen that’s used to embalm corpses. Wanna become one faster? Drink diet soda.

Recent studies have shown that people who drink diet soda typically fail to lose weight or worse, gain even more weight, because their metabolisms are tricked into storing fat by the sweet taste of aspartame.  It’s not just a “calories in, calories out” equation because the biochemical reaction of our brain reacting to the sweet taste isn’t accounted for in the equation.

Don’t think you’re off the hook if you’re drinking regular, sugar-laden soda.  Honestly, it’s a tough call as to which one is worse, but you can read more about my thoughts about it in the Dangers of Drinking Soda.

Inflammation

What’s so important about inflammation?

Discover 12 Powerful Ways to Reduce Inflammation - small3Inflammation causes pain, swelling, heat, redness and loss of function. Left untreated, it can lead to bodily tissue destruction, fibrosis and necrosis. Remember, pain is a signal that something’s wrong.

Who has inflammation?

Inflammation is a root cause of many chronic illnesses such as autism, ADHD, allergies, asthma, eczema, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Help!  How do I reduce it?

Sign up for this free report!  In it, I’ll show you many simple things you can do with the foods that you’re eating to reduce inflammation.  And when that happens, you may not have as much pain, stiffness and swelling.

 

I’M NOW OFFERING KLAIRE LABS PROBIOTICS AND PROTHERA SUPPLEMENTS

Klaire Labs probiotic_groupI’d like to let everyone know that I am now offering my clients world-class probiotics from Klaire Labs and supplements from their parent company, ProThera.

Klaire Labs’ probiotics are a known and trusted entity, especially in the autism-recovery world, and the application of their probiotics extends far beyond autism to those with allergies, asthma, ADHD, OCD, SPD and other autoimmune, digestive and neurological disorders.

The ProThera line includes minerals, vitamins, fatty acids and supplements designed to improve the function of the immune system, liver and adrenals, as well as antioxidants, amino acids and enzymes.  They even carry non-denatured whey protein!

To learn more about how I can help improve your symptoms of these conditions, you can read more about me here.

CAUSES OF NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES

apple with vitaminsNutritional deficiencies are rampant.  I believe many people are falsely lulled into a sense of security by RDA (recommended daily allowances) listings on food and nutrients.

What you don’t know is that RDA requirements are the bare minimum to stave off diseases of deficiency like scurvy or rickets.

RDA requirements do NOT promote optimal health!  [Read more…]

Acid Reflux Medication Dangers

Acid Reflux Medication DangersBelieve it or not, acid reflux medication dangers are real, and these medications do major harm to your body. Shocking, right?

It’s true.  All of those medications (Prevacid, Nexium, Zantac, Prilosec, omeprazole, even Tums) reduce stomach acid, which is what they are designed to do.

The problem is that acid reflux is actually caused by TOO LITTLE stomach acid, not too much.  Counter-intuitive, right?  So what happens when you have too little stomach acid?  For starters, you can’t properly digest food, leading to nutritional deficiencies, particularly magnesium, calcium and vitamin B12.

A magnesium deficiency is linked to:

  • Anxiety and panic attacks
  • Asthma
  • Blood clots
  • Bowel disease
  • Cystitis
  • Depression
  • Diabetes
  • Dysmenorrhea
  • Fatigue
  • Heart disease
  • Hypertension
  • Hypoglycemia
  • Inability to detoxify
  • Insomnia
  • Kidney disease
  • Liver disease
  • Migraines
  • Musculoskeletal conditions
  • Nerve problems
  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Osteoporosis
  • Raynaud’s Syndrome
  • Tooth decay

A calcium deficiency is linked to:

  • Delayed development
  • Dermatitis
  • Lethargy
  • Mental confusion
  • Muscle cramps
  • Numbness or tingling of the fingers
  • Osteoporosis
  • Poor appetite
  • Rickets
  • Skeletal malformations

A vitamin B12 deficiency is linked to multiple neurological disorders, including

  • Abnormal reflexes
  • Anemia
  • Anorexia
  • Apathy
  • Ataxia
  • Balance problems
  • Dementia
  • Depression
  • Developmental delay or regression
  • Difficulty walking
  • Dizziness
  • Failure to thrive
  • Fatigue
  • Forgetfulness, memory loss
  • Generalized weakness
  • Hallucinations
  • Hypotonia
  • Impotence
  • Involuntary movements
  • Irritability
  • Language delay
  • Lower IQ
  • Macrocytosis (enlarged red-blood cells)
  • Mania
  • Mental retardation
  • Numbness or tingling
  • Pallor
  • Paranoia
  • Personality changes
  • Poor head growth
  • Poor motor skills
  • Poor socialization
  • Poor weight gain
  • Psychosis
  • Restless legs
  • Seizures
  • Shortness of breath
  • Speech problems
  • Tremor
  • Unsteady or abnormal gait
  • Urinary or fecal incontinence
  • Violent behavior
  • Visual disturbances
  • Weakness

Not only do acid reducers cause nutritional deficiencies, but they also take away an important component of our immune system.  Stomach acid is used to kill nasty bugs, viruses, parasites and bacteria.  Without enough stomach acid, guess what happens?  That’s right – infection.

By prescribing proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), doctors are putting their patients at a higher risk for infections like pneumonia and gastroenteritis, as well as getting more colds and stomach bugs.

In addition, by taking acid-reflux drugs, you’re more likely to get sick more often because your immune system can’t fight off these offenders.  It also makes the rest of the gastrointestinal tract susceptible to bacterial overgrowth.

Is it worth taking acid-reflux medication?  I don’t think so, and I can tell you that, as a mom, I was furious at the doctors who prescribed them to my boys for their acid reflux after I found out how truly dangerous these drugs are.

 

Lyme Disease Symptoms in Children

A few months ago, my then-6-year-old son had a definite change in his typically sweet personality for the worst.

Given that he already been recovered from sensory processing disorder, I was confused.

This time, instead of crying at loud sounds, bright lights, fast motions, etc., he was ANGRY.  In fact, every time I would ask him to do something, he would yell back at me and say that I hated him and that I was yelling, when in fact I wasn’t yelling at all.

Almost every day he would look at me with total hatred and anger, stomp out the front door and tell me he was running away from home.

I was really confused because these are supposed to be the “golden” years of childhood when there’s not so much hands-on work to do with children this age and they are happy to be with their family.

I kept thinking “If he’s like this as a child, what the heck is he going to be like as a teenager?”

Could It Be Lyme?

This went on for a few months until I remembered about Lyme disease; this blog is about Lyme disease symptoms in children..  Lyme disease can cause sudden changes in behavior, and we live in tick-ridden Connecticut, so this wasn’t a far-out hypothesis.

Lymedisease.org lists the following common symptoms of children with Lyme:

  • “severe fatigue unrelieved by rest
  • insomnia
  • headaches
  • nausea, abdominal pain
  • impaired concentration
  • poor short-term memory
  • inability to sustain attention
  • difficulty thinking and expressing thoughts
  • difficulty reading and writing
  • being overwhelmed by schoolwork
  • difficulty making decisions
  • confusion
  • uncharacteristic behavior
  • outbursts and mood swings
  • fevers/chills
  • joint pain
  • dizziness
  • noise and light sensitivity”

Here a few other symptoms in children:

  • Low tone
  • Clumsiness
  • Learning disabilities
  • Vision problems
  • Fear of heights
  • Rages
  • OCD
  • Heartburn
  • Achiness, especially in the knees

Uncharacteristic Behavior

It was the uncharacteristic behavior, outbursts and mood swings that really made me suspect that it might be Lyme.

I did more research on it, especially about Dr. Charles Ray Jones, a Lyme pediatric specialist who practices near my town.  I had heard him speak before at Dietrich Klinghardt’s Klinghardt Academy in New York City a few months prior; Dr. Klinghardt also specializes in difficult-to-treat disorders, like Lyme, autism and autoimmune diseases.

I had brought a friend who suffers from possible Lyme disease with me to the Academy’s workshops, and she knew of Dr. Jones and his amazing work.

Dr. Jones is fairly famous in the Lyme disease community for recovering children from what is thought to be autism, ADHD, SPD, OCD, ODD and other neurodevelopmental disorders.  It turns out that in MANY of these cases, these children actually had Lyme disease. 

Dr. Jones has recovered over 10,000 children from these disorders.  He prescribes various antibiotics for a course of many years, whereas if you were to go to a typical doctor for treatment of Lyme, he or she would prescribe antibiotics for a few weeks or months.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to subject myself or my children to antibiotics for any amount of time these days, knowing what I know about how they destroy the immune system.  But, hey, the man gets results, and the results show that many of these disorders are, in fact, from Lyme infections.

In his presentation, he gave a few examples of children.  One of them was a young boy who at a very young age (5 or 6) had already been in and out of juvenile detention for things like harming animals, which is a known sign of a child or person on the road to becoming a hardened criminal.  After a few months of treatment from Dr. Jones, this same boy had become the sweetest, most likeable child.

Dr. Jones typically suspects Lyme if the child has any of the following conditions:

  • “frequent fevers
  • increased incidence of ear and throat infections
  • increased incidence of pneumonia
  • irritability
  • joint and body pain
  • poor muscle tone
  • gastroesophageal reflux
  • small windpipe (tracheomalacia)
  • cataracts and other eye problems
  • developmental delay
  • learning disabilities
  • psychiatric problems”

What’s interesting is that 50% of Dr. Jones’ patients have no known history of being bitten by a deer tick and fewer than 10% have a history the classic Lyme bull’s-eye rash (erythema migrans).  In fact, many times the mother unknowingly passes the infection on to the child during pregnancy or childbirth.

Lyme Co-Infections

Lyme disease isn’t just infection from the Lyme spirochete bacterium.  There are also co-infections (bartanella, babesia and erlichia) that typically occur at the same time.  Or someone could just get one of the co-infections without having any of the other co-infections of Lyme.

Lyme disease and its co-infections are difficult to test for.  One reason is due to the corkscrew shape of the bacteria, which allows them to burrow in without being easily detected.

Spirochetes (see the word “spiral” in there?) are one of the most ancient forms of life on this Earth, and they know to survive and adapt to rapidly changing environments.

The Great Masquerader

Lyme can masquerade not only as autism and development delays but also as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis and neurological damage.  In my mind, it should be one of the first things tested for when an autoimmune disease or neurological dysfunction has a sudden onset.  It’s becoming a hidden epidemic, as not a lot of doctors know to test for it.

There’s an excellent documentary about Lyme called, “Under Our Skin”.  I specifically remember a beautiful woman documented in the film who became increasingly contorted.  She gradually lost control of many of her muscles, and doctors, of course, thought she had multiple sclerosis (MS).

The reason that we know it wasn’t MS is that she regained her strength and control after a very long course of antibiotics, so it was obviously an infection.  How many people that have MS, RA, fibromyalgia, autism or developmental delays simply have Lyme?  It’s a real shame they’re not getting proper treatment.

Lyme is not just limited to the Northeastern U.S. anymore; it’s now spreading west to places where you wouldn’t think deer ticks are.  Deer ticks are not the only means of transmission:  mosquitoes, fleas and ticks can also carry the infection.

Given that there is an increasing number of people with gut dysbiosis and toxicity, and thus, a compromised immune system, it’s not surprising that their weakened state allows for such an infection.

Testing for Lyme

Most doctors will run a Western blot test, but it’s not always accurate.  An IgG test would show elevated levels when fighting an infection for a long time, and an IgM test shows if an illness has been reactivated.

Given the confusion surrounding the issue of detecting Lyme, I asked our naturopath to test my son for Lyme with his ASYRA (yes, it’s a little “woo woo”).  Sure enough, my son was infected with bartonella, also known as cat-scratch fever.

Rather than going the antibiotic route, our naturopath prescribed a super-strong herbal remedy.  Ever since treatment began a couple of months, my son hasn’t been hateful or hurtful and is now the super-sweet boy I remember.  His favorite words now are, “I’m so happy I could cry.”  Me, too!

 

C SECTIONS AND BABY FORMULA

infant formulaYet another study shows that C sections and feeding your baby formula instead of breastmilk can change your baby’s gut flora for the worse, leading to gut dysbiosis.

The study’s lead author, Meghan Azad, says that, “Infants born by cesarean delivery are at increased risk of asthma, obesity and type 1 diabetes, whereas breastfeeding is variably protective against these and other disorders.”

I would go further and explain to you that many neurological disorders (autism, PDD-NOS, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Lyme, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, etc.), digestive disorders (acid reflux, colic, colitis, Crohn’s, celiac, etc.) and/or autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, lupus, etc.) have gut dysbiosis as a core, underlying future.

 

METHYLATION: THE HIDDEN LINK AMONG ALCOHOLISM, AUTISM, CANCER AND MORE

diseaseMethylation is a subject that keeps coming up again and again for my sons and myself.  It’s one of those all-encompassing issues like toxicity or gut dysbiosis because so many diseases and conditions are linked, directly or indirectly, to it or rather, a lack of it.

What is methylation?  It’s the chemical process of donating a methyl group (CH3) to a molecule or compound.  This doesn’t sound like much, but this little group is very important to how our bodies function, as I’m finding out.

It not only helps with energy production and builds immune cells and neurotransmitters, but it also processes hormones, detoxifies our bodies, puts protective myelin sheath on our nerves, and can be responsible for epigenetic gene regulation.

Because of its association with all of these essential processes, an inability to methylate is linked to a whole host of diseases and conditions.  Methylation defects are linked to: [Read more…]

WHICH PATHOGENS LURK IN YOUR GUT?

CandidaDid you know that gut dysbiosis, which means there are too many pathogens outnumbering probiotic bacteria, is linked to autism, PDD-NOS, ADHD, allergies, asthma, sensory processing disorder, colic, eczema, IBS and autoimmune diseases like lupus, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis?

If your gut is dysbiotic, you likely have immune dysregulation.

For $99 or less (the more you order, the cheaper it is), you can find out which good guys and bad guys are taking up residence inside of you.

If you’ve ever had any kind of stool analysis done, you’ll know this is a bargain price AND the results are anonymously documented in the Human Microbiome Project.  Read more…