Hormone Imbalance Contributing to the Unhealthy Way You Feel I Paleo vegeo

Hormone Imbalance Contributing to the Unhealthy Way You Feel, and what it does to your life.

I started working on hormones a little over a year ago and as my knowledge as a certified aromatherapist has increased, I have seen amazing changes in my personal health. I can make it through the day now, when I couldn't before. My life has become this weirdness of moringa and essential oils. I'm now to a point where I'm going to push even more to fit in more of the natural changes to get back to a normal life, which I can't believe is on the horizon!!

It's crazy to think of how far I've come in this. So have hope that you will get better, but it does cycle. Good days, AMAZINGLY good days are often a sign of an upcoming crash. Keep up the work and be hopeful for your health.Let me tell you my opinion (nothing on my website as you've read is a medical diagnostic or claim of a cure. I am not a doctor) just what I've found through this process and the aromas I use as a certified aromatherapist. 

Here are some insights on hormones that I've read up on: 

Out of whack hormones are the culprit behind so obesity related issues in particular. Some indicators are;

• persistent weight gain
• loss of muscle mass
• low libido
• fatigue 
• anxiety, irritability, depression (omegas/essential fatty acids also reduce bad cholesterol which contribute.)
• insomnia (lavender, slim and sassy to calm adrenals.)
• excessive sweating
• digestive issues (digestive enzymes and probiotics can help)
• food cravings

With any of these I recommend you go talk to your doctor because there could be more going on than you realize.

For me this was a huge red flag before having the five vials of blood drawn and tested. The fatigue for me had gotten so bad that I some nights could not drive home from picking my husband up. I had to have him drive because I was ready to just fall asleep at the wheel. My weight kept going up regardless of the workouts I was doing, and I couldn't sleep through the night. Don't even get me started on the cravings... it's really been a huge change to deal with for someone like me that was always healthy and never dealt with weight before my daughter was born.

I didn't realize I was moving into that place where I was at the hormone inhibitor UNHAPPY zone. My doctors explained that my hormone inhibitors were;

• age (I was 45)
• poor diet (I ate JUNK when I was pregnant and for the first 18 months after in part to trying to conform to Suburban life) 
• oxidation 
• xenoestrogens (fake estrogen caused by pretty much everything bad around us---Phytoestrogen supplement helps eliminate xenoestrogens and it is adaptogenic to balance estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.)
• inflammation (this one is chronic for me)
• stress (Let's see... miscarriage, pregnancy, lay off, move, job change, move... lots of illnesses for my daughter)
• sedentary lifestyle (Went from nothing to something, but for a while it really wasn't enough)
• environmental toxins

High estrogen---even fake xenoestrogens push down your progesterone to be low. I take a pediatric does of progesterone now because I have lots of allergies to the things you can take to support your progesterone so my doctor has to work very natural with me. Things that help support increasing your progesterone naturally are whole seeds and nuts, avocado, leafy greens, yams. That leaves me with leafy greens and yams. LOL!! Darn allergies. 

I'm using a very special balancing blend to reduce my cortisol reactions during the day, and of course geranium essential oil which really should be a must have oil for any woman or man dealing with hormone imbalance. I use a protecting blend on my feet to help booster support for my immune system. Use daily for 10 days, and then give your system a rest for a few days.

Roman Chamomile is indicated where there is a tendency to be over sensitive either physically or emotionally, and is especially useful in helping with pre-menstrual problems on an emotional level, as chamomile has an affinity for female disorders.

Some other oils that help support the whole being these issues are: 

Citrus oils (think lemon oil in the morning), ylang ylang, balancing blends, stress control blends, Frankincense and True Lavender. I use daily for specifically support my adrenals are Sweet Basil and Rosemary. There is also another great blend that is great for those PMS/PMSD symptoms.

Essential Oils for menopause symptom support;

Hot flashes - Peppermint, Geranium, Citrus oils, Clary Sage
Fatigue - Ginger, Peppermint, Balsam Fir
Libido - Ylang Ylang, Ginger, Peppermint,  Clary Sage

Many studies Indicate the benefit of EO's to our cellular structures and the cellular line I use is a great supplement for that. As a client I can get more into the protocols to support your wellness. I also really worked to boost my glutathione level back to where it's supposed to be. Glutathione is truly the most critical and integral part of your detoxification system and to get rid of those xenoestrogens this is your travel agent, Can you see the importance of having enough Glutathione in the system?

Glutathione elevation is aided by;
Undenatured Whey Protein and/or natural moringa supplementation
D-limonene (Grapefruit and Orange oils, metabolic oils blends are a great tool for this)
Exercise - Yoga, Walking, Slow Strength Training (have you heard of it?) and HIITS

These tools and ideas are so related to men as well. Men suffer at the same rates these days as women with hormone imbalances. Hormones are balanced when we have our deficiencies corrected. For women it's usually iron, but for men it's usually zinc. Also for both it's bad diet, obesity, and those darn xenoestrogens. Also for those men that like to drink, alcohol converts testosterone to estrogen which is why men that drink more often get man boobs. If you are vegetarian and add in soy milk... dude you are in trouble! So keep in mind that phytoestrogen is even great for men! A good protein-rich supplement is something I recommend for most men. More so than women they often are getting even less nutrients and minerals during the day. 

So what does a hormone balancing day of meals look like now? 

For Breakfast it's something like collard greens in coconut oil, side of berries and my XM shake or SuperMix with added Maca powder. (capsules because the air corrupts the maca, so don't buy bags of it.) Moringa Oleifera and Chicory root – a dynamic duo!! 
Snack is fiber with water. We never get enough.

Lunch is a green salad with either some salmon or other lean vegan protein source with added omegas, an apple sliced with some pumpkin or squash puree with cinnamon in it.

Then dinner is a sweet potato or other root vegetables, some selenium rich crab and salsa if I'm doing fish. I like cauliflower because it's a great plant based protein, and a protein shake a lot of the time.

This of it like this: 

Breakfast: {Eat Like A Queen}

Lunch: {Eat Like A Princess}

Dinner: {Eat Like The Pauper} 

Follow the 40/30/30. That's where I was actually most successful before in life because I was following the Zone. But the Zone for most people still has too many of the bad carbs, the bad fats and the bad red meats. Think of this like the Paleo Vegeo Balanced version.
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 See Disclaimer

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Why Healthy Breastfeeding Is So Important I Supplementation Studies I Paleo Vegeo

Healthy breastfeeding with supplementation studies

Breastfeeding is one of the most overlooked, and yet most important functions of a woman's body. And yet, we are often so malnourished due to the way that we eat, neither mom or baby are getting proper nutrition. And often toxins are being passed through the breast milk to your child. Malnutrition and obesity are our two greatest global challenges. We are seeing more gastric bypasses, and yet this is another change that is pushing this malnutrition in pregnancy. 

I saw this post recently and it just really hit me that this problem isn't new. This problem has been known about and going on for over sixty years. And the rise in health problems with our children has been going on just as long.

"Yes, there is a battle going on," Dr. Royal Lee writes in this 1950 article from the magazine The Interpreter. But the war Dr. Lee was referring to did not involve guns or missiles. It was a contest hidden from public view, waged between the nation’s food manufacturers and its first nutritionists—a war regarding the truth about processed foods.

If our breastmilk came with a nutrition label, it might read something like this: 4 percent fat, vitamins A, C, E and K, lactose, essential minerals, growth hormones, proteins, enzymes and antibodies. But read down the label, and the fine print of the chemicals we're sharing with our children according to the NY Times, at least for some women, sounds considerably less appetizing: DDT (the banned but stubbornly persistent pesticide famous for nearly wiping out the bald eagle), PCB's, dioxin, trichloroethylene, perchlorate, mercury, lead, benzene, arsenic. When we nurse our babies, we feed them not only the fats, sugars and proteins that fire their immune systems, metabolisms and cerebral synapses. We also feed them, albeit in minuscule amounts, paint thinners, dry-cleaning fluids, wood preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline byproducts, rocket fuel, termite poisons, fungicides and flame retardants.
Moringa contains four times the chlorophyll as wheatgrass. reducing dioxin concentrations in breastmilk. The organic moringa cake mix has these high moringa nutritional FDA certified pharmaceutical levels per ounce of any plant, over 90 compounds including all of the B vitamins (food doesn't need to be methylated), vitamins C and E, is a complete amino acid, enzymes and rare trace minerals. Powder from the leaf of the Moringa Oleifera plant - a nutrient powerhouse claimed to rival baobab - has outperformed antioxidant-packed superfoods including acai, dark chocolate, garlic and blueberries in an ORAC test. What are these essential vitamins and minerals that you need while breastfeeding, and can get from this amazing moringa cake:

The breastfeeding research I've seen says that moringa is something any nursing mom should look into. Daily stress and post-pregnancy stress may also cause a deficiency of amino acids, and greater consumption of protein is required for these conditions for optimal health. Although we often have problems digesting heavy proteins, due to leaky gut issues, or you are vegan and you don't eat those heavy proteins. So for such individuals, Moringa oleifera could offer an important source of those vital nutrients. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), pregnant and nursing women should have a diet that consists of a variety nutrients including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fats. Moringa oleifera leaves contain many vitamins, minerals, protein, and all essential amino acids (the building blocks for muscle).

There was a double blind, randomized control trialstudy, pretest-posttest controlled which conducted in Gowa District, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, from September 2012 to December 2013. Subjects in this study are 64 pregnant women. In conclusion, Moringa oleifera leaf extracts have significant effect to increase hemoglobin level in pregnant women, could prevent ferritin serum dismount to 50%. Low-birth-weight was not found on the pregnant women in intervention group, while there are 3.20% low-birth-weight in the pregnant women in control group. Further research is needed to confirm the exact dose of Moringa oleifera leaf extracts. Another study published in 2007 in the "Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition" found that moringa lowered glucose levels in the blood of rats. All of this is important to me, even after breastfeeding because myself and my daughter have low ferritin levels (even though she does like to eat meat). 


The biggest complaint I hear from breastfeeding moms is that of low production of their milk supply. Moringa can also help with milk production. A double-blind, randomized controlled trial on the use of malunggay (Moringa oleifera) for augmentation of the volume of breastmilk among non-nursing mothers of preterm infants. One scientific study has been performed on the effects in nursing mothers who ingested moringa leaves and found no adverse side effects. The SmartMix also offers two very important probiotics.  Probiotics during nursing can support a baby's healthy gut and immune system. The moringa cake is organic and non-gmo, grown on the company farms for sustainability, hand shaped, and shade dried. It's natural, and why is that important? Those manufactured minerals that we take daily in our little vitamin packs are simply industrial rocks and not an organic food for humans. With the exception of common table salt, studies show the body treats these isolated minerals like foreign substances, and nutritional absorption is limited. It is not the amount of a mineral you ingest that is important, but its form and how much is absorbed that counts the most. That’s why studies show that minerals in their natural state deliver more nutrition than individual supplements. For biochemical reasons this proves that food plant minerals are superior for humans.

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Lectins, Leptin and Lactic Acid Bacteria Oh My I Barbara Christensen Vlogcast

Lectins, Leptin and Lactic Acid Bacteria

If you have been paleo for long you have heard about Leptin Resistance, and to avoid Lectins. But I am about to BLOW your mind with some science and the connections on the latest VlogCast. 

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My Problem With Extreme Fitness Junkies I Paleo Vegeo I Barbara Christensen CPT

My Problem With Extreme Fitness Junkies

I just started a closed group for men and women that lift weights. The other group I am in I get so tired of hearing them talk about how they lifted and then they did a huge cardio workout. Or they did back to back lift workouts... and I'm thinking if you lifted properly you have nothing left to give. LOL!!! Am I right?

See, as a certified personal trainer my recommendations to clients is always to remember that A) larger muscles require longer recovery time, B) the more muscles your workout, the longer required recovery time, C) fast twitch muscles recovery more slowly than slow twitch fibers. D) age matters. 

Recovery is indeed important, however if you supplement properly, and sleep well, and if your nutrition and technique are on point, you can be conditioned to train often with little or no days off. There is one study I'm closely watching where they are showing that although Intense, eccentric resistance exercise causes muscle damage, soreness, inflammation, and a loss of muscle function, a protein-amino acid supplementation before, during, and following damaging resistance exercise may reduce muscle damage and accelerate recovery. And so we're seeing that it's the aminos, not necessarily the protein (think of all that bacon we see on paleo posts) that matters for body recovery. 

One study did show specifically that BCAA (branch-chain amino acids) administered before and following damaging resistance exercise reduces indices of muscle damage and accelerates recovery in resistance-trained males. So I totally agree with your statement of recovery and nutrition matters. 

Now back to my original issue, the problem that I see is that most people do not do any of the needed recovery items that they should do.A lot of those at the gym or working out at home do not do the needed warm up or stretching when their muscles are warm. Flexibility matters. With aging, functional movement ability, core stability and flexibility are all key. And then they think that major amounts of cardio are good for you, which we have found is so untrue. I swear if I see one more post about how someone did their leg workout and then did another 25 minute HIIT workout I may scream. If you can do more than stand on your wobbly legs after you have finished workout on leg day, I really think you need to pick up more dang weight!! 

We've become this EXTREME nation, and we take a program that is meant to be 25 minutes of hard cardio, and then do it two or three times a day, seven days a week on top of resistance training and it drives me batty. LOL... even the most recent studies are showing that aerobic exercise initially generates more reactive oxygen species (ROS), and even anaerobic exercise may induce prolonged ROS generation. So as we think we are getting healthier, and we have all of these untrained folks out there telling others how to get "fit", there is this cringing part of my being that wants to hit them all over the head. 

Weight loss is a good thing, but not at the expense of our underlying health. Skinny people too die from heart attacks, and thin people can lack oestrogen among other things. A problem for women that we don't address in the fitness community. Researchers analyzed nearly 100 studies that included more than 2.8 million people. While obese people had a higher risk of death -- particularly those whose BMI was 35 or more -- overweight people had a 6% lower risk of death than those of normal weight. So I think we need to really think about why that is. You'd think smaller=healthier. So what are we doing as a "skinny" community that is causing us to be unhealthy? I want to really get people to see that the science it approaching a less is more approach to weight loss and physical fitness, for health, and that you will still lose weight, and still can do things to strengthen your heart, your bones, and your body. Anyone for the Fast Workout approach to cardio, and the Slow Lifting Method for weights will give you a run for your money when it comes to health you crazed overachievers. 

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I'm Feeling Greener I Paleo Vegeo Nourishment

I'm Feeling Greener 

I have been really laser focusing in on my nutrition the last few weeks. Sacrifice is making decisions, getting out of your comfort zone, and giving something up to get to where you want to be. That's exactly where I'm going.

Part of that D.O.M (Daily Method of Operation) is planning out my nutrition in a way that makes it easy, makes sure I'm getting everything I need, and that makes the difference I am expecting. Expectation, isn't that what this is all about? An expectation for a better quality of life. 

So I thought I would share a great blender recipe. 

Ingredients:
1 cup of coconut water
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 scoop of Green (and/or a big handful of kale or spinach)
1 teaspoon of organic virgin coconut oil
1 scoop of plant based protein
¼ cup of frozen wild organic blueberries
1/3 of a frozen banana (or if you are allergic like myself a couple of dates or an apple or pear can sub in)
ice as desired

Directions:
Put everything except the frozen fruit into the blender unless you have a high powered blender — blend to combine.

Add in the frozen banana and blueberries, blend.

Add ice as desired to thicken, blend. Pour and enjoy!

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Visalus Transformation Challenge compared to the Jeunesse Global ZenBodi Challenge I Paleo Vegeo

Visalus Transformation Challenge compared to the Jeunesse Global ZenBodi Challenge

I have a few people that have asked about the differences between the Visalus Transformation Kit and the Jeunesse Global ZenBodi Challenge, and so I wanted to give you all some answers. I think the biggest difference you see upfront is that there is no soy protein it for a good reason. You are getting less products, but they actually do more, and help you to be able to move into maintenance easier because you are eating real foods and building a healthy lifestyle. This is not a Medifast-type program. We want you to find optimal health, and ingredients do not lie.

So let's break down the difference between the Visalus Kit and the Jeunesse Global Kit

Visalus Transformation Kit ($249 a month) includes:

• Vi-Shape® Nutritional Shake Mix:  Help shape your body with perfect nutrition. (60 servings and you drink it 2 times a day) Made with soy (which I don't recommend) and Fibersol which is just a disguise for the genetically modified corn fiber, and lots of other ingredients that are hard to pronounce
• Vi-Slim® Metab-Awake Tablets:  Nutritional support to help you burn fat faster, without jitters or stimulants.  (30 servings) Includes a lot of caffeine, 3 different substances, and Evodiae Fructus which is mostly used in medicine to reduce diarrhea, which makes me wonder why it's part of the program.  
• Vi-Trim® Clear Control Drink Mix:  Add to your shake or any beverage to keep hunger at bay and help prevent diet sabotage. (30 servings) Garcinia is POSSIBLY SAFE for most people when used for 12 weeks or less. Long-term safety is unknown. Garcinia can cause nausea, digestive tract discomfort, and headache. 
• Shape-Up™ Health Flavor Mix-Ins:  Add to your shake for fun, variety, and health benefits! (10 servings) Natural and artificial flavors
• Omega Vitals™:  Help your joints, your skin, your hair, your heart and every cell in your body with our exclusive blend of life enhancing oils, including evening primrose, pumpkin seed, and molecularly distilled fish oils.  (30 servings) Contains Soybean oil. 
• ViSalus NEURO™ Smart Energy Drink Mix:  Get healthy energy. Nutrition for body and your brain! (30 servings) Flavored with Sucralose (artificial sweetener) 

Jeunesse Global Kit ($293.75/month or $199.95 wholesale) includes:

• ZenPro Vanilla and ZenPro Chocolate Shake: Protein helps build muscle and contour the body; it’s what makes you look fitter and leaner after you’ve lost inches.  ZEN Pro™ contains a premium protein blend of whey, rice, pea, and chia seed powder that keeps you feeling fuller longer. The ZEN Pro™ formula also incorporates a probiotic blend of healthy bacteria to optimize digestion and help you stay lean. No Soy. This shake is all natural, undenatured whey, no soy. It is safe for any age and sweetened with stevia and Lo Han Guo Extract instead of sugar or splenda. 
• ZenFit Amino Acid Drink: Amino acids are essential to your health, but your body can’t produce them on its own. ZENFit™ is fortified with amino acids that trigger fat loss by facilitating muscle maintenance and aiding with the absorption of nutrients. Amino acids also activate neurotransmitters in the brain which mitigate stress and elevate your mood. 
• ZenShape Supplement: These powerful capsules contain a patented form of African Mango seed extract, which is clinically shown to stimulate weight loss and metabolic wellness.* Bolstered by an infusion of raspberry ketones and high-quality green tea extract, ZEN Shape™ controls appetite and helps regulate blood sugar levels. ZEN Shape™ empowers you to make the right choices by suppressing cravings that lead to unhealthy habits. 

The human body is complex. It takes several mechanisms working together to keep you fit and healthy, which means a multi-functional approach is necessary to target fat loss correctly. While you eat, your fat cells naturally produce a vital messenger called leptin. Leptin has two roles in the body: one, it communicates to the brain that your body is no longer hungry, and two, it tells the brain when it’s okay for the body to start using fat cells as an energy source.

As you age, your cells may also start releasing another protein called the c-reactive protein, which causes inflammation in the body. After it is released, the c-reactive protein fuses with the leptin molecule, it inflames, and like a big block trying to enter a tiny hole, it stops leptin’s vital messages from reaching the brain. A vicious cycle begins: the body can no longer recognize when it is full, causing weight gain that can lead to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

ZEN BODI™ restores harmony and help your body function the way it was meant to. The ZEN BODI™ system works in unison to decrease the production of the c-reactive protein, which allows leptin to enter the brain so that you can regulate your appetite properly. ZEN BODI™ also decreases an enzyme called G3PD, which converts blood sugar into fat; by slowing down the production of G3PD, ZEN BODI™ helps keep you leaner.** It targets the three essential aspects of getting fit: curbing appetite, losing inches, and getting toned. This methodical approach to weight loss isn’t the only

revolutionary thing about ZEN BODI™—what’s truly revolutionary are the results. 

I can tell you after the year I've had being back to a place where I started working out again at the beginning of the month, and had the results I had over 90 days (the above photo)... I truly believe that ZenBodi is the real deal that you've been looking for.

And here is my Jan 1 - Jan 20 results after combining the Nourished In 30 with the Zen Bodi program... Paleo Vegeo + Nutritional Support totally wins!! 

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Nourished In 30 Finally On Kindle I Paleo Vegeo I Barbara Christensen

The Nourished In 30 Finally On Kindle 

I have been teaching others through my Nourished In 30 program for the last year - and I have met some amazing people that live their own nutritional "paleo" truth. And so I was so excited to finally have my program on Kindle. YAY!!

I feel like there are enough "recipers" out there that this isn't a recipe book, although I do include a few very simple recipes. This is an information book. It's exactly what I teach my clients about nutrition and how it impact their wellness. It is meant to be both physically healing and emotionally healing because if you've ever done a program like this you know that you are going to be pulling up emotions. They go hand in hand. It is why there are so many emotional eaters. We too often connect our food to our souls. And unless you are creating amazing recipes and open fantastic restaurants, connecting food to your soul is a very bad thing.

So what I wanted to do was share something that would educate, give you some good cleansing results, and also help you come out the other side feeling like you've learned something amazing that you will take into the rest of your life. I want to make sure you read labels, and think about epigenetics, and I also want it to be easy. So I hope that I created all of those things. Please feel free to share your testimonial below, and let me know what you think the best part of the program was for you.

You can order your Nourished In 30 for your Kindle on Amazon - http://amzn.to/1yrXi9K

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Barbara Christensen VlogCast I Paleo Vegeo I Vacation Post, Vegan Creatine and Brain Shrinkage Diseases

Barbara Christensen VlogCast Vacation Post

So while I'm enjoying the holiday with family I wanted to share more "genetic" intriging information for all of you to enjoy.

Vegan Creatine and Brain Shrinkage Diseases

I found an amazing Vegan source of creatine! I'm so excited. And remember that creatine isn't just important for those trying to build muscles. Dr. Terry Wahls, who've I'm enjoying listening to on TED today, believes that creatine and carnitine are 2 extremely important nutrients for healing the mitochondria. The data suggest that creatine may enhance survival signaling via activation of the Ras/NF-kappaB system. MS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, MS... all have the similar brain shrinkage which Dr. Wahls believes is linked to poorly functioning mitochondria.

Dr. Wahls said she first started to see changes in her own medical condition after adding omega-3 fats, creatine and Coenzyme Q10 into her daily routine. She then changed her diet to include the building blocks of nutrition which for her she determined were roots, seeds, nuts, oily fish, grass-fed meats, organ meats and natural iodine from sea weeds.

I love seaweed and those sea vegetables I often get from the Emerald Sea supplement because it has been tested heavy metal and toxin free which is so important. Seaweed is great for iodine because of the use in our myelin repair. Myelin is a fatty substance that forms a sheath for nerve fibers According to an amazing naturopathic physician, Dr. Linda Page, all neurological disorders must be comprehensively addressed, and so I agree because when you add into the issues things like the severe copper deficiency in MS, and we've talked recently about copper and dopamine, etc, then you can't just say you have a genetic defect and leave it at that because it comes back to the nutrition. Genetics and nutrition, and nutrition and genetics. I still believe that our answers have to start with the questions there. In MS, T cells from the body's immune system attack and destroy the myelin sheath and leave the nerve cell fibers unprotected. The reason the iodine is important to the myelin sheath has to do with it's role in our synthesis of the thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones help your cells activate genes which triggers the production of specific proteins. One of those proteins is the myelin basic protein (MBP) which is an essential component of the myelin sheath. Something interesting for those with Hashimoto's to consider as well.

Now Dr. Wahl also ate 9 cups of non-starchy vegetables and berries each day. For her 3 cups of that were greens, and 3 cups were sulphur-containing vegetables -  kale, collard greens, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, garlic, onions, chives, leeks, mushrooms, asparagus, and colorful vegetables. She believed anything inflammatory and processed must be removed – so no sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, allergens, dairy (including raw dairy), grains, or legumes, including soy beans.  Sound familiar? Dairy, grains and legumes, especially, are implicated in auto-immune reactions which is what brings many of us to both veganism and paleolithic diets.

Yet Dr. Russell Blaylock, a neurologist, has suggested that while "no one has adequately tested a specific diet and mix of supplements as a treatment for Huntington’s, based on the best scientific evidence it makes sense to follow a mostly vegetarian diet, avoid fluoride and mercury-containing seafoods, foods containing omega-6 (vegetable oils), and high-sugar foods and drinks."

I personally have to wonder, was it the bioactive iron and amino acids that she was getting from the grass-fed and organ meats  just something she was greatly lacking due to her genetic makeup and perhaps digestive issues?

I would be personally worried about offering up too much meat to anyone with Huntington's not knowing enough about the proteins, but of course I am not a doctor or dietitian. But just like what I've talked about with MTHFR defects and our genetics being a key to what we should be eating and supplementing with, those with Huntington's have the HTT genetic defect. John Hopkins has been doing some amino acid based clinical studies that seem to point in this direction. Interesting read over here.

Also think about the fact that the oily fish would have contained a combination of algae DHA combined with the omega3's. And what a great combination for both detox support and brain health, right?

Now also going into paleo she would have then removed the gluten (specifically wheat) proteins. As I've read about the HD patient in S. California who was a member of a local CrossFit Gym, and who had been diagnosed with HD by a group of University neurologists employing MRI technology to detect the characteristic brain lesions. After approximately 8 months following adoption of a Paleo Diet (Gliadin free), she experienced a dramatic reduction in disease symptoms and subsequent MRI evaluation indicated a reduction in lesion volume. My uncle has celiac and so he is living Gliadin free and is quite healthy even though he is almost 90 years old, which is really quite an interesting bit I'd love to study more one day.

Dr. Wahl also recommended for diet to eat organic, free-range, antibiotic-free eggs (if tolerated), because they contain choline – which together with inositol – is critical for myelin sheath repair. I've discussed myelin sheath repair on my blog a long time ago in connection with curcumin extract. Turmeric is a potent anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory as you know. So when it comes to these sorts of nuero diseases, curcumin has been seen as a way to free up the traffic in your nerves and repair that myelin sheath damage. In fact they have found MS to be very rare in India where Turmeric is a part of the daily nutrition.

Back to choline, however, your collard greens, swiss chard and cauliflower, sesame and those beloved flax seeds all contain lessor levels of choline and if you are eating the 3 cups were sulphur-containing vegetables daily you would imagine you are getting enough choline. Also grapefruits, oranges, mandarin oranges, cantaloupe, rutabaga, blackberries, artichokes all have great amounts of inositol. So I don't think that it really comes down to the meat and that is why we are seeing vegan paleo as being so healthy. Just making sure you are getting those highly bioavaiable nutrients that you need daily is what is important, not the specific food product.

I want to emphasize that I am not a doctor, and I can’t provide personal medical advice. Any decisions about treatment of a disease or symptoms from an illness should be pursued in consultation with your primary physician.Consider this some useful items to discuss at your next appointment if you are looking to dramatically change your diet.

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