Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

High carbohydrate foods can reduce immune system function against infections

2/4/2020

I have been writing a lot of articles over the past 2 months or more on your immune system, to help you improve its function and strength against the current coronavirus pandemic. I've given you multiple ways to improve your immune system through dietary, lifestyle, supplements and more. This time I am going to talk about what NOT to do!

For your immune system to work properly to protect you from all types of infections, it needs a variety of nutrients from your foods. Good digestion and gut function is important too, which will be a topic for another article in the future!

All those people who have hoarded high carbohydrate foods for the coronavirus apocalypse may not like what I am about to say!

A very recent published open letter from several doctors and specialists trained in nutritional medicine (Clemens et al., 2020) has again confirmed that diets high in carbohydrates, in particular the refined carbohydrates of sugary foods and drinks, grain-based foods (breads, bakery products, cereals, pasta etc) and alcohol (sorry!), all deplete the immune system in a couple of ways:

Carbohydrate-rich foods are metabolised in your body into glucose, which causes an increase in blood sugar levels. High blood sugar levels cause a lot of inflammation, particularly to the blood vessels, the liver, but many other organs and tissues too
High carbohydrate foods are generally low in real nutrients, thus causing nutrient deficiencies if consumed in high amounts
High carbohydrate diets cause an increased demand for certain nutrients needed to metabolise the sugar from the foods, such as vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, B-vitamins and more. Note that some of these I've mentioned before in my previous articles on what you need to improve your immune system function
People with chronic health conditions have been shown to have reduced levels of these essential nutrients. Generally, the elderly have more chronic health conditions than other age groups, meaning that they are at greater risk to infections (which is what we are seeing in this coronavirus infection)
The higher your blood sugar level, the lower your vitamin C level, and vitamin C is blocked from entering cells when blood sugar levels are high
Immune system cells (white blood cells) need 100 times the amount of vitamin C than other cells, so high blood glucose will reduce immune system function
High levels of fructose (a type of sugar from fruit, fruit juices, soft drinks, grains and alcohol) significantly inhibits the activation of vitamin D (which is a massive immune system booster and infection protective compound).

In the same open letter, the specialist doctors found for previous infections such as the H1N1 flu, the biggest risk factor for a severe case of this infection was high carbohydrate intake and high blood glucose, especially in those who were diabetics.

To confirm this, other studies showed by reducing carbohydrate intake can provide protection against infections, by stimulating the immune system response (Clemens et al., 2020; Goldberg et al, 2019).

Sadly all those high carbohydrate long shelf-life foods that people have hoarded and now in short supply on the bare supermarket shelves, should be eaten at a minimum because of their negative effects on your immune system.

You need your immune system working optimally at the moment, which means eating more whole, fresh, real and preferably organic foods as much as possible. This means quality meats, vegetables , nuts and seeds, quality fats, eggs, etc and only a small amount of fruit. These foods are nutrient-dense with more real nutrients your immune system needs! Eat less of the highly processed and packaged foods, especially those high in sugar or foods that metabolise into sugar (glucose or fructose) from grain-based foods.

Stay Healthy!

References:
Clemens, Z., Tóth, C., Dabóczi, A., Andrásofszky, E., Horváth, R., Kolonics, G. (2020). Possibilities of reducing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and increasing natural resistance to the disease via nutritional intervention. Retrieved 1 April 2020 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340296931_Possibilities_of_reducing_the_spread_of_the_SARS-CoV-2_virus_and_increasing_natural_resistance_to_the_disease_via_nutritional_intervention. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27031.93605
Goldberg, E.L., Molony, R.D., Kudo, E., Sidorov, S., Kong, Y., Dixit, V.D., & Iwasaki. A. (2019). Ketogenic diet activates protective γδ T cell responses against influenza virus infection. Science Immunology, 4 (41): eaav2026. DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aav2026

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Cancer in children is increasing

17/2/2020

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According to a very recent study (published today) in the Medical Journal of Australia, incidences of childhood cancers have been rising dramatically over the past 30 years. In 10 years, from 2005 to 2015, childhood cancer rates have been increasing at 1.2% PER YEAR. The study estimates that childhood cancers are expected to rise by 40% in the next 20 years. The media only reported a 7% increase – no idea where they pulled that number from. These are truly shocking statistics.

Statistics in other developed countries are similar, with the USA finding one in 285 children being diagnosed with cancer before their 20th birthday. This equates to 3.5%, and in both the USA and Australia, cancer is currently the biggest cause of child mortality (other than accidents).

The MJA study claims the causes of cancer in children is unknown, and that more research is needed. No, we know what the causes are, so I will save them time and research money…

Cancers arise from chronic inflammation which causes a low functioning immune system. As your immune system detects cancer cells and destroys them, the prevention of cancer is completely dependent on the effective functioning of your immune system.

What causes chronic inflammation? Lots of things, including:

Stress
Lifestyle factors – smoking, alcohol, drugs, low exercise, poor sleep etc
Nutrient deficiencies, or excesses of some foods
Toxins and chemicals in foods, water, the environment, and from other products that the body is exposed to
Medications – especially antibiotics, corticosteroids, NSAIDs, and other immune system suppressing drugs
Viral infections
Radiation exposure
Weight gain
Hormone imbalance
Other existing chronic health conditions
Genetics – only in 5-10% of cases.

These are your causes of cancer.

The medical and pharmaceutical industries are always after research money to find the ONE cause of cancer. They won’t find it when there are many causes of cancer, and the causes can also vary from person to person. This makes research very difficult to prove, and why they have no answer after decades and many billions of dollars of research.

To prevent cancers, you need to avoid the above root causes. To treat cancers, you need to fix the above root causes.

This is why I like specialising in investigating and treating chronic inflammatory conditions, immune system dysfunction, autoimmune conditions, and cancer too! I can get to the root causes of each person’s issues, and put a plan in place to treat the causes and reduce symptoms too.

We all want our kids and family to be healthy and happy, and sometimes it’s difficult to know what actually is good or healthy for us or not, or what are the most effective treatments for long-term health. If your family are frequently sick with infections, or have chronic inflammatory conditions, then something is wrong with their immune system. That’s where I can help, by investigating the causes and fixing them!

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What is pain? Why do I have pain when I don't have an injury?

28/6/2019

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What causes pain, and why do we have pain when we may not have had an injury?

Pain is the result of inflammation in the body.

So what is inflammation?!

Inflammation is a normal process of tissue repair that our bodies undergo, as a result of stressors, an injury or infection. We need inflammation to heal and return to health again! If you cut your finger, inflammatory processes driven by our cells and your immune system will repair the cut. Symptoms of inflammation are:

1) Pain
2) Swelling
3) Redness
4) Heat
5) Loss of movement or function.

These symptoms of inflammation are just part of the repair process. The pain is just your body telling you that the area of injury shouldn’t be used while it is undergoing repair.

Chronic or ongoing or long-term pain is not normal and is a symptom that the above repair process has become dysfunctional and isn’t working to get you back to health again. Again, it is your body trying to tell you that something is wrong, and to do something different to help fix it.

Chronic pain can come and go, or you can have periods of constant low-level pain, with times of much higher pain flares seemingly without reason.

What causes the constant pain and the flare-ups, and what can we do about them?

Chronic pain means that the inflammation process is being constantly triggered, every day. It also means that the healing process is not able to be completed, due to the daily triggers and a dysfunctional immune system which keeps the inflammation and pain occurring.

Anything that can cause inflammation in your body will exacerbate any existing inflammation and this causes more pain. Inflammation can itself be caused by many factors, including:

1) Physical or emotional stress
2) Your dietary intake – excesses of some foods and deficiencies of some nutrients
3) Infections, which can be low-grade or hidden, or past infections that are recurring
4) Dysbiosis - an imbalance in your microbiome
5) Medications
6) Poor quality sleep
7) Allergies and intolerances
8) Toxins, chemicals and radiation exposure.

Hence to fix YOUR chronic pain, all of these factors need to be investigated and resolved! Treating only the symptom of pain with medications will never fix the problem and the pain will not go away. Finding and fixing the root causes of inflammation WILL enable the body to heal, and WILL stop the pain!

If you have chronic pain, or someone you know does, I would like to help reduce the pain so you can have your health and quality of life back again!

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food intolerances or sensitivities can cause chronic issues

24/2/2019

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I see a lot of people, mostly children, with intolerances and sensitivities to any number of foods, food ingredients or environmental substances. The number of people with such intolerances or sensitivities appears to be increasing at a rapid rate. So what might be causing these issues?

But firstly, what are some symptoms to look out for in yourself or your children?

Common symptoms of intolerances and sensitivities can include:
- constant or recurring runny nose, and having to blow nose frequently
- clearing of throat by coughing frequently, especially after waking in the morning
- sinus infections or pressure
- frequent tummy upsets, with sudden or frequent diarrhoea
- bloating of lower abdomen and lots of gas/flatulence
- frequent infections such as throat infections, colds and flu
- foul or smelly breath
- frequent enlarged or infected tonsils and adenoid glands, or had them removed due to being enlarged
- skin rashes, eczema, or itchy skin
- having a horizontal crease across the lower part of the nose
- sunken and/or dark circles under the eyes, as shown in the meme photo.

Many people think that these intolerances are "allergies" and use this term to describe the reactions or symptoms they see. Allergies and intolerances are both immune system reactions to triggering substances, but they are very different! Intolerances such as to dairy or gluten (as in Coeliac Disease) are an IgG immune system response, whereas allergies are a more severe IgE response.

People also believe that if you avoid the food or substance that you are intolerant to in the same way as for allergies - ie, complete avoidance, you actually have a high risk of developing new intolerances to MORE substances. I've seen this in some clients and in published research.

Hence intolerances need to be treated quite differently to allergies! In addition, failure to identify various intolerances and act on them can result in ongoing symptoms and development of chronic health conditions.

Because of the delayed reaction of symptoms appearing with intolerances, it can be very difficult to identify what are your individual triggers! But there are some very good pathology tests using blood or hair samples which can identify 50-500 different food and environmental triggers which cause intolerance symptoms. Bear in mind that allergy tests will not identify intolerances or vice versa.

If you see the "allergy shiners" under your eyes or other intolerance symptoms or in your children or family, please look into getting an intolerance test to identify what is causing these issues, and then make some adjustments to dietary intake or lifestyle to reduce exposure, to improve health! I can help with testing and recommendations from the test results!

Do you have any known intolerances and what are they? Or do you suspect some intolerances but are not sure what is causing them?

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What is a low carb diet? How can a low carb diet reverse chronic health conditions?

30/7/2018

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There is a growing trend and following of "low carb" type diets for improving health! But there seems to be some confusion or misunderstandings about what "low carb" is, how it is to be implemented, and the benefits! So what does "low carb" actually mean?! Does it benefit everyone? And for which health conditions can it help? Most excellent questions, I'm glad you asked!

The macronutrients we need to eat in a balanced diet (whatever that means!) are proteins, fats and carbohydrates. While most foods contain all of these macronutrients, the definition of carbohydrates is less clear, but generally includes all vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes, pulses, starches and sugars.

At first glance most of these foods would seem to be health, so why do we want to do "low carb"?!

In my clinical practice I analyse peoples' diets and I see most people eating far too many "processed carbohydrates", which includes sugary foods and drinks, breads, grains, bakery foods, cereals, pasta, and alcohol. These products are all high in carbohydrates, but very low in real nutrients! Carbohydrates are NOT an "essential" nutrient, as our bodies can make them from other foods we eat. We have "essential" proteins (amino acids), and "essential" fats (the omega-3 and omega-6 fats) which we MUST have in our diets regularly, because our bodies cannot make them! But there are no essential carbohydrates!

Diets high in these processed carbohydrates can not only reduce the overall amount of nutrients you eat, but cause high blood sugar levels and a lot of inflammation in your body. It is the high blood sugar which causes most of the inflammation response, but also other "nutrients" and "anti-nutrients" in these high carb foods, such as gluten, lectins, phytates, preservatives, additives, agricultural chemicals, moulds and toxins, and more.

High levels of inflammation (which can be confirmed with pathology testing) are what causes most chronic health conditions we see today - weight gain and obesity, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and even cancer.

I also see people not getting enough protein in their diet, and not enough healthy fats! We need proteins for growth and repair, and for many other metabolic functions every day. We also need healthy fats to make our hormones, neurotransmitters, new cells, for energy, and much more! Processed carbohydrates seems to be in excess in most people, and this causes health issues... so a lower processed carb intake, with the reduced amount of processed carbs being replaced by quality protein and healthy fats, can reduce symptoms and bring around a return to health!

There are many implementations of low carb diets, such as Paleo, keto/ketosis/ketogenic, low inflammation diet, primal, LCHF (usually meaning Low Carb High Fat, but that causes bad implementations, so I prefer Low processed-Carb Healthy Fat instead!), and others.

Not all of these nutrition plans may be beneficial for everyone, as there are a lot of interpretations of them, and some can be too extreme for my liking. The main problems are often seen in LCHF, Paleo, or ketogenic diets, which some people can have too much of a percentage of one macronutrient, at the expense of others, which can cause deficiencies and negate any benefits to your health. When these plans are done well, the benefits to your health can be incredible!

With the "good" carbohydrates of whole, fresh, and organic vegetables and fruits being packed with nutrients, I still recommend you eat plenty of these types of carbs! So a "low carb" diet really means a "low processed-carb, low inflammation, but high in nutrients" food plan!

A low carb nutrition plan can have many benefits to your health, by increasing your nutrient intake, reducing inflammation, reducing symptoms of chronic diseases, and helping you to feel much better!

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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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A MAJOR CAUSE OF AUTISM FOUND

5/12/2017

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The incidences of autism spectrum disorders in children has grown massively only in a few decades. While statistics on incidences vary a lot due to a lack of accurate records, the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the following increase over a few years:
In 2003, 30,400 Australians had autism.
In 2009, 64,600 Australians had autism.
In 2012, 115,400 Australians had autism.

In just 9 years, the incidence rate has tripled. Some official US statistics say autism disorders now affect 1 in 68 people, and some much worse than that. This is an epidemic, but little seems to have been done about the prevention or making the public aware of the causes of these conditions. (See the UPDATE at the end of this article - new statistics just in, showing incidences now at 1 in 40 children).

Autism is not a completely genetically inherited trait. The huge increase in incidences over 1-2 generations cannot be scientifically explained just due to genetics. The increased awareness, leading to more diagnosing of this is not the reason either, especially when there actually is no medical test for a diagnosis - as it's based on subjective observations. The science of epigenetics, however, can explain the increase in autism disorders, by showing how environmental toxins and other environmental factors change our genetic expression to cause autism.

A new study published a few days ago (November 2017) has confirmed a large piece of the puzzle on one of the causes of autism – neurotoxic and heavy metal poisoning of the brains in every autistic person tested. In particular, the neurotoxic element aluminium was mentioned in this study entitled “Aluminium in brain tissue in autism”.

Tests were performed on brains of 10 deceased people with autism, to investigate aluminium toxicity. They tested 5 different lobes or areas of the brain for aluminium levels. What they found was shocking – 40% of all tissue samples showed aluminium levels as high, and 67% as having extremely high levels, across all brain regions. This study showed that aluminium is extremely toxic to the brain, was able to cross the blood-brain-barrier, and actually get inside the neurons (brain cells) to cause damage (ie, inflammation) in the brain.

The aluminium levels seen in the study were amongst the highest EVER seen in brain tissue tests. In fact, some of the tissues from children were equivalent to elderly patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease (a chronic inflammatory and degenerative condition, mostly seen in elderly people, and also linked to being caused by aluminium exposure over their entire life).

There are other toxic chemicals linked to causing autism, and other factors too, such as a reduced ability to detoxify environmental toxins, maternal exposure to toxins when pregnant, infections during pregnancy, nutritional deficiencies, gut infections, dysbiosis, and more.

For these environmental causes of autism, there are many things which can be done to reduce the risk, or to detoxify the body of these environmental toxins, and to reduce symptoms. Some easy tests can be done to check for possible heavy metal toxicity, whether for autism or other conditions. This is often done with an inexpensive hair test and other tests, which we can arrange at the clinic. A detailed report will show the results of levels of good minerals, as well as many heavy metals or toxic ones, or how well their body can detoxify (or not).

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact me, or the clinic for details.

UPDATE: Interesting timing - the CDC (Centres of Disease Control in the US) released a paper just today showing statistics of the incidences of autism and developmental delays in US children. I've read the report - and it's much worse than the statistics in my article, showing a huge increase in autism and developmental delays in just 2 years since the previous report.
The previous official report said autism was seen in 1 in every 68 children in 2012 to 2014. However in this report from 2014 to 2016, the rate has nearly doubled to 1 in 36! This rate is only for Caucasian children which was the worst result. When all ethnicities are included it's 1 in 40 US children with autism, which is still absolutely shocking.
But what is worse, but not mentioned in the news articles on this were the rates of developmental delays, which is at 7% of all children - this is one child in every 14! Of course these are the "official" rates, with the real rates likely to be even worse.

Something seriously needs to be done to 1) investigate and 2) stop and reverse this.

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more new science shows cholesterol is not the enemy!

18/6/2016

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I have written about cholesterol and heart health before (see other articles below), and how the media, government sources and medical profession are still telling you that cholesterol is bad for you and that it increases your risk of heart disease. But the scientific research on cholesterol over the past 20+ years shows the opposite!

Let's get some background info... cholesterol is allegedly bad because it is found in the walls of blood vessels, which over time can lead to blockages, clots and heart attacks. Then there's the allegedly "good" HDL cholesterol, and the "bad" LDL cholesterol.

In reality however, cholesterol is cholesterol - there are no good and bad types! Cholesterol is a protein for transporting fats around in the blood. Cholesterol is needed in the body to make new cells, help digest our food, make all of our sex hormones, and other essential hormones without which we would die. A reduced cholesterol intake (cholesterol is only found in animal foods) causes your body will make all the cholesterol it needs every day anyway. However if you eat a diet high in cholesterol-rich foods, your body will need to make less for what it needs. Cholesterol is also needed for healthy cell walls and a better response to body hormones. The smaller "good" HDL actually pick up accumulated fat molecules out of atherosclerotic plaques in blood vessels to take it to the liver or other organs for reuse. The larger "bad" LDL carry fat molecules to the cells for use in energy production, making of hormones, making new cells and more uses. LDL is therefore not bad at all - it's all good!

All of this information was backed up again today (16th June 2016) with a new published paper in one of the most prestigious medical journals - the British Medical Journal - reviewing many other studies done on high LDL cholesterol levels (the "bad" one) in relation to it increasing the risk of death in older people (over 60 years). This paper reviewed 19 other studies done on over 68,000 people and found that high LDL cholesterol was NOT associated with an increased risk of death from any cause or heart disease. In fact 92% of the participants showed a REDUCED risk of death with a higher cholesterol level! These conclusions confirm many other research articles I've read on the subject recently.

The analogy of cholesterol is of a fireman at the scene of a fire. While the fireman is found at the fire, it isn't the cause of the fire! Cholesterol is found in narrowed or blocked blood vessels (ie, atherosclerosis) but it is not the cause of the problem. Chronic (long-term) inflammation causes damage to the lining of blood vessels, and cholesterol is deposited on the damaged walls to protect the blood vessels. Continued inflammation, from a poor nutrient intake of too much sugar and processed carbohydrates including whole grains, high intake of oxidised fats, not enough antioxidant foods, high blood sugar, toxins and other factors are just some of the causes of inflammation of blood vessels, and therefore the cause of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and heart disease.

Only by looking at the causes of inflammation and heart disease and resolving the causes can the risk of heart disease be reduced or eliminated. Statin medications (prescribed to reduce cholesterol) don't fix the cause (they just hide the symptoms) and actually make your health worse. Another study done in 2013, also in the BMJ, it was found that simply adopting a Mediterranean diet is 3 times more powerful at reducing your risk of death from heart disease than taking a statin!

My family has a history of heart disease and dying too young. I don't want the same for you and your family because of the misinformation or dangerous advice about low fat diets and cholesterol. That's why I'd like to help you and your family to reduce your risk of heart disease with advice that is based on recent and independent scientifically proven research.

If you think your blood pressure or cholesterol levels are high or if you have a family history of heart disease, there is a lot that can be done for prevention or treatment with a Naturopathic consultation to find the cause and treat the cause, not the effects.

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High carbohydrate foods can reduce immune system function against infections

Cancer in children is increasing

What is pain? Why do I have pain when I don't have an injury?

food intolerances or sensitivities can cause chronic issues

What is a low carb diet? How can a low carb diet reverse chronic health conditions?

What is MTHFR?

A MAJOR CAUSE OF AUTISM FOUND

more new science shows cholesterol is not the enemy!

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