|
|
SEVENTEEN OVERLOOKED CAUSES FOR INSOMNIA
(2CEU approved for Acupuncturists, State of California)
This continuing education online course is designed to inform alternative medical practitioners of some overlooked causes for insomnia. It will give you guidelines and tools to begin to determine the multiple factors impacting your patient’s insomnia symptoms. Cost $50. Please contact Immune Matrix LLC by Phone at 408-262-6900 for registration information. Thanks You
The focus of this article is to discuss the little known or understood phenomenon of how the immune system interferes with sugar metabolism and insulin usage. This makes diabetes control difficult and fuels diabetes complications. The information in this article can help you to begin to improve your insulin resistance, sugar metabolism, delay the progressive degenerative conditions associated with diabetes, and prevent the development of adult onset diabetes in pre-diabetics.
Long before anyone develops “adult onset”, “obesity-induced”, Type 2 diabetes their cells begin to develop resistance to insulin. How does this happen? Before one’s cells become fixed in insulin resistance, the immune system can develop a sensitivity to sugars and the metabolic byproducts of sugar digestion and metabolism. When this occurs, you have developed an immune based interference with the digestion and absorption of sugars. When you eat complex or refined carbohydrates, you are less able to break them down into simple sugars. These larger “undigested” molecules cannot fit into the cell receptor sites and can become recognized as “foreign particles” that the immune system then assists in removing from one’s blood and lymphatic system. The more the immune system “recognizes” these undigested particles (and therefore “larger molecules”), the more inflammation and immune system interference you develop towards your sugar metabolism.
How does insulin resistance develop when we are not breaking down and digesting our carbohydrates into simple sugars? Our cells need simple sugars as fuel. They begin to send signals out to the body to increase insulin because they are hungry. However, all the insulin in the world does not help this poor cell to get the simple sugars it needs because your body is not breaking down its carbohydrates into simple sugars. The result is that the extra insulin your body made to stimulate your cells to take in more simple sugars is ignored by the cell because there are no simple sugars to take in. Over time the cell receptor sites ignore the insulin signal in increasing degrees. Think of insulin like yelling “fire” in a crowed room. At first everyone acts upon the alarm call. However, repeatedly yelling “fire” will soon have everyone in the room ignoring your call. This is what happens when insulin secretion is excessive. And you now see the problem wasn’t insufficient insulin to begin with (in cases of adult onset or obesity induced insulin resistance, syndrome X or metabolic disease) but rather insufficient available simple sugars (because the body was unable to break down its carbohydrates into simple sugars).
Complex and refined carbohydrates have to be broken down by enzymes with a specific affinity for the sugar that needs to be broken down. For example, lactase is the enzyme needed to digest cow dairy sugar called lactose, and maltase is the enzyme needed to digest malt, the sugar in gluten products. The synthesis of digestive enzymes is one of THE most energy draining and complex processes the body has to undergo. With age, with low intestinal probiotics, with increased immune inflammation, the body becomes less and less efficient at making digestive enzymes.
It is a well known anti-aging secret that taking a broad spectrum digestive enzyme as soon as you start to eat your meal improves your body’s ability to “break down” complex and refined carbohydrates into simple sugars our cells can absorb, oils into simple fatty acids, and proteins into simple amino acids. Taking digestive enzymes will not prevent or inhibit our body from making its own digestive enzymes. Taking too large a dose of digestive enzymes only breaks down one’s food faster and can cause hunger and more frequent bowel movements as food moves through your digestive tract faster. Simply take one pill instead of two prior to meals if you feel that you are getting hungry too soon after eating.
The first goal to improve one’s diabetes is to gain better control over one’s sugar metabolism. Adding a digestive enzyme is a first step. Eliminating refined carbohydrates should be the second step. If you are unable to eliminate refined carbohydrates (all processed carbohydrates such as bread, cereals, crackers, pasta) and eat only rice, potato, and starchy vegetables such as beans and legumes in their place, then you must cut down the volume of refined carbohydrates you eat and never eat them without the presence of protein. Protein helps to prevent the quick conversion of a refined carbohydrate into sugar, which leads to a spike in your insulin.
Even if you take insulin, it is well known that over time the body becomes resistant to it (insulin resistance increases over time even with medication) and therefore one should never have the attitude that “all I need to do is take my insulin and everything will be ok”. This is not true. With medication you will not go into a diabetic coma, but the inflammatory processes that result from undigested sugars circulating in your body will continue to erode your eyesight, affect peripheral capillaries and circulation, all common and known degenerative changes associated with diabetes.
Therefore, even if you take insulin or oral medications to help control your blood sugar there is plenty that you can do to improve your own carbohydrate digestion and cellular absorption of sugars by watching the type of carbohydrates you eat, limiting portion sizes of those carbohydrates, eating protein with carbohydrates and taking a broad spectrum digestive enzyme with your meals. This is the beginning of making living with diabetes a better lifestyle choice and it will improve your blood sugar and insulin resistance. It will also make your medications more effective and stall the need for your doctors to increase your dosages over time.
For more detailed information on sugar metabolism, see our other articles about sugar cravings, BeneGene for natural glucose control, and stress and obesity. Future articles will address other aspects of lifestyle changes that will improve living with diabetes.
Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.
2010/07/23
Published
WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT TO GET OUT OF THIS COURSE?
It is the goal of Immune Matrix Institute to give you a fundamental understanding of core nutritional and health care concepts that we feel are essential building blocks to enable you to:
1) understand basic concept of good nutrition
2) be a better informed consumer of nutritional supplements
3) handle common infections before they require drug treatment
4) understand basic concepts of digestion
5) understand healthy lifestyle choices in diet, nutrition and exercise
6) understand how your immune system works
7) communicate better with your doctor(s)
8) make better decisions about healthy snaking
9) make better food choices for your health
10)have a basic understanding of key lab tests
11)know what to keep in your medicine cabinet
12)how to have better emotional health
13)cope with life stress better
This course is our foundational course for future advanced courses on specific health care topics. We are currently seeking continuing education credits. Please let us know if you have specific continuing education credit needs.
The course includes 230 pages that will be sent to you either on Word doc or PDF format, please specify. It covers 15 chapters with quizzes and a final exam on What is Health, Body Basics, Building Blocks of Nutrition, Vitamins & Minerals, Allergies, Immune Sensitivities, Inflammation, Acidity, Detoxification, Dysbiosis, Leaky Gut, Infections, Sleep (17 areas of health that impact sleep), Clean Eating, Meal Tactics, The Home Medical Pantry, Physical Activity, Emotional Health, Stress, Elderly and Needs of Children, Colds & Flu, Vaccinations, and Physical Exams and Lab Tests.
Cost: $199.00 (Includes 30 days Q&A forum chat with Immune Matrix health care practitioners and author of blog articles.) To pay by phone call 408-262-6900, or buy online at www.immunematrix.com online store.
What this course is not designed to do is to diagnose or give you medical advise about any disease or condition. This course is also not intended to have you rely upon your own skills to the exclusion of your seeking medical advice for unexplained symptoms or conditions or follow up care. This course is also not intended to have you change or stop any prescribed medications without first consulting your prescribing physician.
2010/06/05
Published
(Part 3 of 4 of Why Be Concerned About Heavy Metals?)
In Part 1, we discussed the difference between heavy metal “poisoning” and being heavy metal “toxic”. To get a feel for the impact that heavy metal toxic accumulation might be playing on your health, read this article in its entirety. When you are done, print out the sections for each heavy metal and re-read them. Highlight all sources of exposure that pertain to you and all symptoms or conditions for each heavy metal that pertain to you. Then sit back and take a look at the span of symptoms that heavy metal toxicity could be playing in your life in terms of sources of exposure.
Make a plan of action to eliminate or minimize those sources of continuing exposure. Take a look at the symptoms and conditions you highlighted and get a feeling for how heavy metal toxicity could be accelerating, contributing or causing your symptoms. This will give you new insight on causes for your symptoms that your average medical practitioner may have never discussed with you that are worth addressing now. Future articles will address the complex subject of heavy metal chelation and how it can be safely done and effectively monitored.
EXCESS COPPER
We need copper in the body to act with other key minerals to fuel metabolic processes. However, when the ratio of copper is elevated to zinc, we have to take action to rebalance our mineral ratios and eliminate excessive copper. How do we get too much copper?
1) birth control pills, copper IUDs!
2) copper cookware!
3) copper pipes
4) dental alloys
5) ice makers!
6) Swimming pools
7) City and well water
8) Welding
9) Avocado, beer, chocolate, corn oil, crab, gelatin, grain, lamb, liver, lobster, margarine, milk, mushrooms, nuts, organ meats, oysters, perch, shellfish, soybeans, tofu, wheat germ and yeast.
10) fungicides, insecticides
Excessive copper wrecks havoc on our metabolism, especially for those suffering from allergies, chronic inflammation, immune disorders such as autism, ADD, ADHD, Asberger’s, OCD, arthritis, thyroid disorders, skin disorders such as eczema, and adrenal insufficiency. Where excessive copper may not be the sole causative agent in disorders, it certainly does play a significant part in delaying the progress of any therapeutic program as well as aggravating and complicating symptoms.
The following conditions should have copper levels checked by hair and serum testing, along with serum zinc levels: Acne, adrenal fatigue, low cortisol or high cortisol values, allergies of any kind, alopecia, anemia, anorexia, anxiety, arthritis of any kind, autism, Asberger’s, ADD, ADHD, OCD, cancer, cystic fibrosis, depression, diabetes, estrogen dominance, chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Hodgkin’s disease, hyperactivity, hypertension, chronic infections, insomnia, kidney disorders, decreased libido, lymphoma, migraines, mood swings, multiple sclerosis, lyme disease, nervousness, osteoporosis, panic attacks, paranoia, PMS, schizophrenia, senility, facial tics, twitches, Alzheimer’s, sexual dysfunction, feeling spacey, brain fog, stuttering, toxemia of pregnancy, urinary infections, yeast infections, stroke.
Hair test kits are available online at www.immunematrix.com.
EXCESSIVE IRON?
Most patients will ask “Is excessive iron a problem?” since the common concern is for iron deficiency. Excessive build up of iron in our tissues can cause a big problem. It can lead to heart failure, heart damage, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, high blood pressure, insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, hostility, joint pain, mental problems, metallic taste in mouth, schizophrenia, shortness of breath, nausea, pancreas damage, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, constipation, cancer, bleeding gums, birth defects, arthritis, agitation, anger and stubbornness (all issues involving the liver) and amenorrhea.
Sources of Iron Exposure:
1) drinking water
2) cast iron cookware, especially when we cook with a tomato base leaches out more iron)
3) iron plumbing pipes
4) welding
5) blackstrap molasses, bone meal, bran, chives, clams, organ meats, legumes, nuts, oysters, parsley, refined foods, shellfish, soybeans, wheat germ, whole grain.
6) Red wine
Do women need to worry about excessive iron?
Women, once they stop menstruating, begin to increase their iron stores. This is a major reason that their cardiovascular risk begins to look similar to a man’s once they reach menopause. They no longer have the benefit of purging heavy metal toxins and excess iron through their menstrual blood. This is another reason why peri-menopausal and menopausal women may begin to develop thinning hair and hair loss. The scalp is highly vascularized and sweats easily, assisting the body to excrete toxins. Unfortunately, metals excreted through scalp sweat also irritate hair root follicles. With increased scalp toxicity the hair can begin to fall out easily. Once these women begin a course of heavy metal detoxification the hair loss stops if it is due to toxic accumulation.
Men’s peculiar risk with excessive iron:
Men have unique risks with accumulation of excessive iron. Historically they tend to suffer increased risk for heart attack and cardiovascular disease with excessive iron. It’s an easy thing to have a blood test to rule out excessive iron. Western medicine recommends that such men donate blood regularly. However, better than donating “toxic” blood, is to chelate one’s heavy metal burden properly.
LEAD POISONING versus LEAD TOXICITY
We hear quite a bit in the news about lead toxicity. It causes its own symptoms especially for the young. Immune Matrix has seen however, that adults can suffer “lead poisoning” from the flux on old plumbing that contaminates one’s drinking water in older buildings. Testing one’s water is a good idea if blood work and hair tests show high lead levels. However, you do not need to have lead “poisoning” per se to suffer the damaging effects of lead toxicity.
Sources for lead:
1) dust from lead paint, and children have been known to eat paint chips containing lead
2) retaining lead shot gun pellets in the body
3) swallowing lead weights from fishing supplies
4) storing acidic foods (fruits, tomatoes, wine, cider) in lead-glazed ceramics
5) burning lead-painted wood in fireplaces
6) burning battery casings in fireplaces
7) storing alcohol in leaded glass containers, using leaded crystal
8) inhaling leaded gasoline fumes from cars
9) working with lead soldering, stain glass work
10)mini-blinds have had lead dust
11) coal combustion
12) color inks, some imported toys
13) cosmetics, some lipstick dyes, mascara
14) electroplating
15) household dust
16) hair dyes
17) industrial emissions
18) lead-glazed pottery
19) newsprint!
20) metal polish
21) pencils
22) pvc containers
23) tin cans (think of those holiday cookies store in those quaint tin cans!) with lead solder sealing
24) tobacco, cigarette smoke
25) red wine again!
26) city or well water
Lead Poisoning:
Lead poisoning occurs over time and can cause sudden onset of symptoms with some severe and irreversible symptoms to children such as developmental delay, memory problems, inflammation of the brain, and in adults cause kidney disease. If there was a case of acute lead poisoning in children, the child would suffer vomiting, seizures, alternations in consciousness and even coma. Less severe symptoms are derived from inflammation in the brain and appear as irritability, inability to focus, seizures, and mental regression. In adults, there may be headaches, metallic taste in the mouth, anorexia, vague abdominal symptoms, irritable bowel and/or constipation.
Lead Toxicity
The concern with lead is that it was only recently determined that the presence of lead in the body magnifies the damaging effects of mercury toxicity up to 1000 fold! Therefore, the symptoms coming from lead toxicity can actually be symptoms of mercury toxicity.
Immune Matrix has found that those patients with elevated lead levels are not good candidates for mercury detoxification. The slightest mobilization (release of mercury stored in the body) in response to chelation will cause the patient to have many side effects from the chelation and they usually quit as a result. Most doctors do not then examine whether this patient is in fact extremely lead toxic. By reducing the lead load, the symptomatic and damaging effects of mercury accumulation can be greatly reduced and patients can later resume mild mercury detoxification.
The second and significant problem with lead accumulation is that because our environment is loaded with lead from car exhaust, we all accumulate lead. This slow, gradual, daily accumulation of lead is a primary culprit to the widespread problem of hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, a leading killer in the modern world.
Lead also accumulates and is stored in our bones! What’s wrong with that you say? Isn’t it safely tucked away from harm in our bones? Not at all. With age, with de-calcification of our bone, either from an acid foods, or osteoporosis, as the bone looses calcium, it also releases lead. Suddenly, with bone loss our lead toxicity rises, there can be a sudden burst of oral cavities, gum soreness and inflammation, dementia and neurological problems, kidney disease, anxiety, hypertension, arthritis (inflammation) etc. as the unleashed lead works its damaging effects through the body. Other symptoms include: joint pain, loss of coordination, problems with concentration, constipation, deafness, depression, emotional instability, fatigue, headaches, impotence, suppressed immune system, intestinal candida, leaky gut, memory loss, muscle aches, muscle weakness, irritability, nightmares, numbness, Parkinson’s disease, peripheral neuropathies, psychosis, restlessness, and tingling fingers and limbs.
Look at the above symptoms again. Don’t they look like symptoms of the aged?! How many of these symptoms do we take for granted and presume “It’s the natural process of aging.”, when in fact it could be the increasing threat of lead being unleashed in the body by de-calcification to wreck havoc.
Part 4 will complete our discussion of common heavy metal toxicity. Future articles will deal with the complex subject of safe heavy metal chelation and what you need to know about how your liver detoxifies.
Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.
Incoming search terms for the article:can painting cause ecess copper in the bodywhen to be concerned about fatiguewhat are the symptoms of excessive copperlead in Vital Choice chocolatelead and cupper in winesis a symptom of lyme disease retaining excess heavy metalsexcessive iron in swimming pool toxic?excess iron treeseffect of cotisol hormone in lead toxicity in [...]
|
Click to order NOW (Enter Manayan33 in coupon/gifts box for a great discount) 
If you need more information about how Benagene can help you, please read the ARTICLE on CHRONIC FATIGUE AND SUGAR METABOLISM under Insulin Resistance Topics. Click to ORDER Right For Your Type™ formulas by Dr. Peter D’Adamo 
Finally, there exists a highly advanced system of supplementation that is ideally in-sync with your very individualized blood type needs. Each unique formula has been tailored to your blood type, and designed to deliver the highest quality ingredients at reasonable prices.
multivitamin formula, PolyFlora, Teas Secretor Test Kit and more for Blood Type O ♦ Type A ♦ Type B ♦ Type AB
Click here to ORDER organic meats and other healthy meats including ostrich meat, bison meat, organic beef, free ranged organic chicken, and others. 
100% organic meat is certified organic by the USDA and CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers). Our tender, delicious healthy red meats are rich in protein and low in fat, calories and cholesterol. Click here to order 80% Extra Dark Organic Chocolate Medley – 2 oz bars 
Our Extra-Dark Organic Chocolate is hand-crafted with intensely aromatic cacao grown in Latin America and the Caribbean, and boasts a whopping 80% cacao solids, for rich flavor and unequalled antioxidant power. (The antioxidant capacity of cocoa solids is the highest of any food tested to date).
|
