Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

Plastics are bad for the environment, and your health too!

16/6/2020

In my consultations, I always ask my clients about their use of plastic products, such as using plastic water bottles, or plastic food containers, or whether foods are cooked in the microwave in "microwave safe" plastic containers. There's no such thing as "safe" plastic!

In short, all plastics leach chemicals into the food or water they contain. And plastics leach chemicals at much greater rates when the plastic or food is warmer, or even when frozen in plastic containers.

The issues with plastics are that the chemicals in them (BP-A, BP-S and similar, PCB, PVC, phthalates, parabens and more) are "endocrine disruptors" or chemicals which mimic or disrupt your body hormones, particularly your sex hormones and mainly the female hormone oestrogen. An increased amount of oestrogen in your body can cause a number of severe and dangerous symptoms or effects, such as:

Thyroid hormone disruption (which will affect your metabolic rate and whole body function)
Blood sugar imbalances, and poor blood sugar control
Male and female infertility
Menstrual symptoms - PMS, irregular cycles, painful periods and heavy bleeding and more
Premature puberty and menstruation in girls, even as young as 7 years
Breast cancers in women and men
Ovarian and uterine cancers in women
Endometriosis
Weight gain
Smaller penises and testicles in boys
Reduced sperm count in males
Genital defects
Enlarged prostate in men
Prostate cancer in men
Manboobs and weight gain in men
Gender dysphoria - a mismatch between physical gender and how one feels, favouring a more female identity especially in males.

Hormone-disrupting and cancer-causing chemicals in plastics can be found in unlikely places, including from:

Plastic cookware and utensils
Plastic kettles
Drinking water from plastic water tanks
Chemicals in shampoos, body washes and hair products
Cosmetics
Fragrances and perfumes
Household cleaning products and vinyl products in flooring and cars
Childrens' toys
Thermal receipts from shops
Canned vegetables, especially tomatoes (the cans are lined with BPA)
And many more sources.

Excess oestrogens in your body from plastic exposure can have a severe effect on your health. Which is why you need to avoid plastics and their hormone-disrupting chemicals from all sources.

If you have any of the symptoms or conditions above, reducing your exposure to plastics needs to be a key initial step. Additional work will need to be done to reduce your levels of these chemicals, balance your hormone levels again, and improving your whole body health to recover - which is what I can do!

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soy products are not health foods

28/1/2020

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I often see clients who are consuming soy products because they believe that soy is good for their health. However, for most people who are interested in having the best of health, soy products are NOT what you should be consuming! Soy foods are not health foods! They are, in fact, highly processed foods, and should be treated like most junk foods, and restricted or even avoided in most cases!

Soy products such as the raw beans, tofu, soy milk, simulated meat products, soy ice cream, soy cheese, soybean oil, and soy baby formula and more are highly processed products that are known in research to be linked to breast cancer, thyroid disorders, intolerances, infertility, digestive complaints, and more adverse health effects.

Some might argue that Asians have been eating soy products for a long time and they have very long life spans. That may be true, but they don't eat very much soy, and when they do it's mostly fermented soy, a natural process which is needed to get rid of the anti-nutrients, oestrogen mimicking chemicals and natural toxins found in soybeans. Fermented soy products that are good to eat include tempeh, miso and natto. Also, Asian cultures have different genetics to many other cultures, and can perhaps handle soy better...

The problems with soy and soy products are many:

1) Unfermented soy products interfere with normal thyroid hormones (which controls metabolism), thus slowing down your metabolism making you put on weight as fat.

2) In most women. soy also enhances the effect of the oestrogen (ie female) hormone, causing a range of issues with the female menstrual cycle and therefore reproductive problems, infertility and an increased risk of female hormone related cancers such as breast cancer, cervical cancer and more.

3) The oestrogenic (female hormone mimicking) effects of the phyto-oestrogens in soy have a greater effect In men, to also affect fertility, increase fat production and create man-boobs, cause enlarged prostate gland, and over time, prostate cancer.

Soy may only help a very small number of people - such as those with oestrogen excess, in women and men. In this case, its phyto-oestrogens can block some of the oestrogen receptors on cell walls, to have a reducing effect of having high oestrogen levels.

Over 95% of the world's soy is genetically modified to survive being sprayed with the RoundUp/glyphosate herbicide which would otherwise kill the plant. Hence the soy products contain this toxic chemical which is a "probable" carcinogenic, according to the World Health Organisation in 2015. There have been a couple of very high profile lawsuits against the Roundup manufacturer Monsanto recently, after victims proved that the herbicide caused their terminal cancers.

In addition to the hormone-affecting issues, soy products can bind to many minerals in the meal to prevent the absorption of those minerals such as calcium, zinc, magnesium, manganese and iron! Frequent intake of soy products can lead to deficiencies in these minerals, which results in many health issues and symptoms.

As most processed or prepared foods found in the supermarket contain soy products, it's best to look at the product ingredients and also avoid those that contain soy.

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Stevia can cause infertility in males and females

18/2/2019

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We know sugar in large amounts in our diets are not good, as it causes an excess of glucose, high cholesterol, weight gain, inflammation and over a period of time, many chronic diseases. So some "smart" scientists come up with artificial sweeteners to satisfy our guilty sweet cravings without the "calories" or sugar. But it usually turns out that one by one all artificial sweeteners have major downsides in causing unwanted side effects in your body, such as more weight gain, diabetes and even cancer. So this article may be a surprise to most, being about Stevia, a "natural" alternative sweetener.

Stevia comes from a South American plant, Stevia rebaudiana, native to Brazil and Paraguay. The leaves of the plant have traditionally been used in those countries as a sweetener to their tea, for sweet treats and a medicine. Stevia can suppress the growth of oral bacteria to reduce tooth decay, and reduce blood sugar levels. Stevia has also been shown to kill beneficial gut bacteria, which isn't ideal.

Despite these apparent benefits, Stevia has not been universally accepted as being safe for consumption in the USA or Europe or other countries. This decision appears to have been made on many scientific studies since the 1960s showing that Stevia can reduce severely reduce fertility in animals. In males, Stevia greatly affects the metabolism and use of testosterone, the male hormone, and effects on male reproductive anatomy, to affect fertility by over 60% and also affect other general male characteristics which are reliant on male hormones.

In studies on female animals, Stevia was shown to reduce fertility by 57-79%, similar to the results on male studies. The effects on female infertility lasted for months after intake of Stevia was ceased. Stevia has this contraceptive effect as it impacts your hormones and hormone receptors on cells. The contraceptive properties of Stevia have been known for a long time - with early studies in 1968 showing this. Native tribes have traditionally used Stevia for centuries for its contraceptive purposes!

While I am all for natural alternatives to today's mass-produced artificial food and medicines, some plants when ingested do have some negative health consequences, while others can be deadly. Many medications are simply artificial forms of just one (of many) active constituents of a plant. Many Stevia products are similar, being mass-produced or artificial forms of the plant extracts, rather than being the whole leaf.

It appears that Stevia has long-known contraceptive effects, but this hasn't been widely made public. And despite this research, Stevia is still available for sale as a sweetener and food additive in many processed food products, which is concerning.

I'm not a fan of any artificial sweeteners, and sometimes the real thing is the safest option, but in small amounts only in real foods, such as in fruits or some sweet vegetables.

If you are looking to get pregnant in the near future, you need to really check what you are eating and what chemicals you are exposed to, before planning a family! This is something that I can help with!

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Why should you avoid folic acid in pregnancy or conception

20/8/2018

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Are you, or someone you know trying to get pregnant, or thinking of having children soon? Or have you been trying to get pregnant for a while and it's not being successful? Or have you had one or more miscarriages?

There are many possible factors which cause difficulties with getting pregnant or holding onto a pregnancy such as stress, nutrient deficiencies, toxins and chemical exposure, genetics, smoking and alcohol, inflammation and more.

These are two of the most common, but little known, causes of infertility:
1) Hormone imbalance in men and women, and
2) Genetic mutations in men and women.

These are the biggest causes of infertility I see in my clinic, but both are fairly easy to treat to get a successful result! Sadly, the medical approaches to infertility are very expensive, and they don't address the root causes of infertility. One very common and recommended medical "treatment" actually causes more heartache, distress, infertility and miscarriages. This is the advice that the woman trying to conceive should take a pregnancy multivitamin supplement which contains "folic acid".

Folic acid is not found in nature. It's not real. It's an artificially synthesized form of folate, or a fake and dangerous form of vitamin B9, which is found in plant foods. Folate comes from the word "foliage", hence leaves or leafy green vegetables, but also found in any plant-based food.

"Folic acid" is added to cheap retail brand supplements and pregnancy products, as well as to breads, and other refined grain products, cereals, processed foods, and packaged foods. It doesn't have the same effect in your body as the real folate!

But what is worse is that up to 40% of people may have a particular genetic mutation called MTHFR, which I have written about before here:
http://www.rosswalter.com.au/articles/folic-acid-vs-folate-are-they-the-same

When men and women with the MTHFR genetic mutation take supplements with folic acid in them, or eat lots of processed foods high in folic acid, they can develop toxicity from UMFA (un-metabolized folic acid) syndrome. Taking folic acid in supplements or foods when you have the MTHFR mutation causes ongoing infertility, and very sadly, recurrent miscarriages. But women trying to conceive and pregnant women are told to take supplements with folic acid! As per usual with many government or medical directives, this simply makes things worse.

A recent study (Servy et al., Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 2018) tested couples who had infertility issues for at least 4 years, where one or both partners had the MTHFR genetic mutation. Most had previously tried folic acid supplements, but they had a lot of poor results, including multiple miscarriages. The study instead supplemented the couples with a natural form of folate instead, for only 4 months.

No adverse effects were seen from this form of folate. But the results were amazing! 39% of the females conceived naturally, with most needed some additional treatment to achieve pregnancy, but only 6% didn't succeed. That's a 94% success rate after avoiding folic acid, but taking a natural folate supplement instead!

The study concluded that the natural folate supplement should be used for when one or both partners have the MTHFR mutation, and that the artificial folic acid must be avoided to prevent folic acid toxicity, immune dysfunction, and other adverse health effects such as cancer.

I highly recommend getting tested for MTHFR with a simple blood or saliva test, and taking a pregnancy supplement which does NOT have folic acid in it, but a natural form of folate instead. I can help with both the test and the natural folate supplement, along with investigating other possible causes of infertility.

If you are trying to conceive, or know someone who is, please share this article to them so they are informed and can have a successful outcome!

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PMS or menstrual symptoms indicate a hormone imbalance

30/4/2018

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Why are females so complicated?! I don't mean in a relationship sense, but hormonally! Male hormones (mainly testosterone) by comparison are generally stable (females may say that men are emotionally "flatlined"!), but there are many more dynamic hormones in a female (FSH, LH, several oestrogens, progesterone, testosterone and more!) which can change from day to day through their cycles.

Female hormones must be finely tuned and balanced for menstrual cycles, fertility, pregnancy and other processes. Unfortunately many things can upset the delicate hormone balance, such as stress, nutrient deficiencies (and excesses), alcohol, digestive system function, exposure to toxins and chemicals, exposure to plastics, and other potential factors.

If you are female and have any regular symptoms just before and/or during your period such as headaches or migraines, cramps (especially if severe), bloating, pains, acne, clots, being very emotional, sore breasts, difficulty getting pregnant, miscarriages, or if your period is irregular in frequency and duration, then you have a hormone imbalance. A "normal" period really should be symptom-free, except for the bleed! Unfortunately, other period symptoms have become normalised by doctors, when they really are signs of hormone imbalance.

In addition, if you (or any other female you know) has PMDD, PCOS, endometriosis, fibrocystic breasts, fibroids, or cancers of the breast, ovaries, cervix or uterus, these are more chronic and severe symptoms of hormone imbalance. Hormone imbalances can result in these very serious conditions. This is why hormone imbalances should not be ignored or hidden each month with painkillers and anti-inflammatories or contraceptive medications. The root causes of the hormone imbalance needs to be investigated and resolved. This is what I do!

In my detailed questioning, I will seek to identify all root causes of hormone imbalances. I may also recommend specific pathology testing, including a saliva test of female hormones (which I have noted that not a lot of doctors or even specialists even look at), before recommending a personalised treatment plan.

How good would it be to not have any PMS symptoms or other chronic female conditions (PCOS, Endo, fibroids, etc)?! You can! And I would like to help you have a "normal" period again, or resolve other female hormone related health issues.

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What is MTHFR?

19/1/2018

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What is MTHFR?! No, it isn't an acronym for something very rude, but for Methylene-TetraHydroFolate Reductase, which is a bit of a mouthful, so MTHFR is much easier!

MTHFR is a human gene, which codes for the production of an enzyme of the same name. The MTHFR enzyme is important for chemical reactions in the body involving vitamin B9 (also called "folate"). The enzyme converts the folate in your food (mainly in plant based foods) into the active form of folate which your body can then use.

Folate is important for many purposes - the synthesis of DNA and the production of new cells, for "methylation" reactions (such as turning on and off gene expression), for metabolising amino acids from proteins (for hormone and neurotransmitter production), for the production of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, to turn off inflammation, for energy production, for critical detoxification functions, and many more functions.

The MTHFR gene and enzyme are especially important because mutations of this gene can have significant impacts on your health. Depending on which mutation of this gene you may have, of which there are 34 different ones, there are 2 main variants which can be tested for, because of their importance in your body.

Depending on the type of MTHFR mutation you may have, it can mean a 20% loss of function, or 40% or even up to a 70% loss of function to the MTHFR enzyme activity. This means that all of the uses of folate can be severely compromised. One of the biggest impacts of a MTHFR mutation is regarding detoxification of chemicals from the body. If your body cannot detoxify environmental toxins efficiently, this can cause a lot of chronic physical and mental health issues.

"Folic Acid", which is an artificially synthesised form of folate found in many vitamin and mineral supplements, is not the same thing as the natural folate. It doesn't have the same effects at all. But most importantly, IF you have the a MTHFR genetic mutation, you MUST NOT be taking any supplement with folic acid in it. Because your body cannot metabolise folic acid properly, folate levels in your blood and body can build up and reach toxic levels, and also inhibit the metabolism of natural folate. Some studies and researchers have suggested that even people without any MTHFR mutation should still avoid all supplements with folic acid in them. There are other forms of folate in supplements which are safer and more effective!

MTHFR mutations are common in people who have heart disease, glaucoma, many psychiatric or mental health conditions, some types of cancers, high levels of inflammation, infertility and recurrent miscarriages, autism spectrum disorders, and many other chronic health issues which don't seem to go away no matter what you do for them. If you suspect you may have a MTHFR mutation due to chronic health issues, you can get tested for this.

Testing for the MTHFR mutation can easily be done with a simple blood test. This test costs just $90, but can be very useful in helping you to achieve your health goals! If you have (or someone you know has) health issues which don't seem to be improving, despite being on a good treatment plan, then a MTHFR genetic mutation can often be the cause of this. Testing for the mutation can give peace of mind and the effects of the mutation can be greatly reduced as there are additional steps in a treatment plan which you may need to include. Please contact me or the clinic to arrange a MTHFR test!

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Plastics are bad for the environment, and your health too!

soy products are not health foods

Stevia can cause infertility in males and females

Why should you avoid folic acid in pregnancy or conception

PMS or menstrual symptoms indicate a hormone imbalance

What is MTHFR?

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