Lectin-Free Diet

To Reduce Inflammation, Try This!

Lectins are microscopic proteins that plants evolved to defend themselves from predators, including insects and animals (that includes humans!). They are essentially indigestible and have the unique ability to increase the permeability of your intestines which eventually can cause a leaky gut or more intense situations.

That means that lectins and other small particles of food can pass through the wall of your gut, and will be treated as foreign invaders by your immune system. This causes an inflammatory response, which can set the stage for a host of diseases, as well as weight gain. 

Dr. Steven Gundry popularized the lectin-free diet. He is a former heart surgeon who switched his focus to food and supplement-based medicine. Dr. Gundry describes lectins as the main danger found in the American diet. In response, he has written a book that provides information on how to avoid lectins, alternative food choices, and recipes, The Plant Paradox. 

According to the book when lectins are harmful, leaking through the gut and causing inflammation, the auto- immune diseases that can be created are celiac disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and depression.
Following a lectin-free diet could be a way to lower inflammation in the body. The best way to know if avoiding lectins would make a difference in your health is to get muscle tested to see how your body responds to lectins.  

According to Dr. Gundry, people should limit the following foods when trying to avoid lectins:
    •    legumes, such as beans, peas, soy, lentils, and peanuts
    •    squash
    •    nightshade vegetables, such as eggplant, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes
    •    fruit, although in-season fruit is allowed in moderation
    •    all grains
    •    corn
    •    meat from corn-fed animals
    •    A1 milk


Soaking beans overnight in water and some baking soda, then draining them and thoroughly boiling or pressure cooking them, can eradicate nearly all lectins. In fact, pressure cooking vegetables and legumes is also an excellent way to decrease lectin content in those plant foods.  But, using a pressure cooker doesn’t get rid of all lectins – it won’t even touch the lectins in wheat, oats, rye, barley, or spelt.
Likewise, sprouting grains, seeds, and beans releases enzymes that reduce lectins, and the process of fermentation can cut the lectins in dairy and vegetables.
Peel and Deseed your fruits and veggies – If you’re going to use lectin-rich plant foods, make sure to peel and deseed them. Often, the most harmful part of a plant is it’s lectin-filled hull, peel, or rind. To reiterate, the peels and the seeds are often where lectins are hiding, so you can significantly cut down on your intake by eliminating that part of the plant.
Finally, if in fact you must eat grains, opt for white over brown. So, instead of brown rice, eat white rice. Instead of whole wheat bread, find a healthier version of white bread.
Turns out, though many believe brown rice is healthier than it’s white counterpart, those who eat rice as their staple grain have always stripped the hull off of brown rice before they eat it. That’s because the hull contains all the dangerous lectins.

A lectin-free diet is not easy to follow but the science is there to back up why lectins would cause inflammation in the body and lead to certain diseases.  If you think it may help you and you can’t get muscle tested then try not eating lectins for 2 weeks and then add them back in and if you notice a difference then maybe avoiding lectins is the best thing you can do for your body. 

Advanced Allergy Clearing Technique

A New Service at Healing Arts

Accelerated Allergy Clearing Technique

Do you experience:

Environmental allergies that make you dread seasonal changes?
“Food Allergies” that severely limit your diet (and nourishment)?
Sensitivities to things in your environment that restrict your quality of life?
Symptoms or unwanted health conditions that simply won’t respond, or only respond to treatment temporarily?

These symptoms could be signs of allergies.  If you have allergies, there is an alternative to medication and the impracticality of avoidance…
It is AACT, Accelerated Allergy Clearing Technique. And if you do have seasonal allergies, luckily for you, Nova learned this technique just in time for spring!

Allergies are versatile. They can show up just about anywhere in your body and provide a variety of issues. They can affect your nose, eyes, throat, lungs, stomach, skin and nervous system. They can give you a bellyache, a rash and even bring on fatigue and headache.
In our experience, when major allergies, both food and/or environmental, are present and not handled, they are often interfering with the body’s normal function, repair, and self-correcting mechanisms. Autoimmune disease have risen dramatically due to high levels of polution in the air. This represents a major health problem that experts now think affects one third of the whole population. And if they are not managed properly, people begin to deal with it by avoiding the modern world.

Food sensitivities, environmental allergies, and chemical sensitivities are afflicting more and more people and an individual can be allergic or sensitive to any number of substances including: foods, molds, pollens, animal dander, chemicals, fabrics, medications, MSG, food additives, etc. Allergy symptoms can be over-reactions of the immune system while and/or an imbalance in the body's nervous system. An imbalance in the body's energy can lead to decreased health, so clearing allergies and sensitivities is one way to improve the overall immune system. 

The allergy clearing procedure is a gentle, painless, non-invasive way to relieve symptoms by utilizing acupressure, muscle testing, and nutrition to address underlying problems and bring balance to the body. It is safe on the youngest to oldest of patients. Most begin to notice improvement in just a few sessions, but the full benefit is seen as a patient's overall health improves with the combination of the clearing plus vitamin supplementation. Some common changes with the allergy clearing include: elimination of lactose intolerance, reduction or elimination of IBS, sinus relief, seasonal allergy relief, elimination of eczema and hives, reduction of fatigue, improvement of ADD symptoms, decreased gluten intolerance and bowel gas, and elimination of asthma, just to name a few. 

The following are symptoms that may be related to allergies or sensitivities. If you experience any of these conditions and have not found relief, you may be a candidate for allergy clearing. Symptoms including: acne, canker sores, dark circles under eyes, eczema, hives, itching, constipation, diarrhea, gas, heartburn, vomiting, IBS, asthma, coughing, sinusitis, stuffy nose, bedwetting, joint pains, anxiety, fatigue, bloating, hyperactivity, learning disorders, arthritis, hay fever, post nasal drip, red ear lobes, red cheeks, ear infections, headaches, sore throats, and weight gain.

If you think you may be a candidate for Advanced Allergy Clearing Technique (AACT) call the office, (866) 585-5999 to schedule an initial exam.  

A Healing Apple Cider Vinegar Drink

Years ago I started suggesting the use of drinking apple cider vinegar to help with candida problems but when I found out that Hippocrates (the father of modern medicine) knew about apple cider vinegar’s antibiotic properties and recommended it to his patients for its healing properties centuries ago I started doing more research.

Apple cider vinegar has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral properties. Among the ailments it’s said to help with allergies, acne, high cholesterol, joint pain, weight loss, rheumatism, arthritis, gout, dandruff, chronic fatigue, candida, sore throat, gum infection, sinus infection, flu, acid reflux, leg cramps and ear infections. It’s also used to help dissolve kidney stones, lower high blood pressure, and it’s also been shown to help with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity.

Even though vinegar is acidic, when we drink apple cider vinegar it has an alkaline effect in our bodies. The fact that apple cider vinegar causes our pH levels to become more alkaline could play a large part in it's healing abilities. It also reacts to some toxins in our bodies, converting them into less toxic substances. Our bodies need a slightly alkaline pH balance to be healthy. The typical Western diet creates an acidic pH in our bodies, and many health problems are attributed to this. Taking a tonic containing apple cider vinegar can help restore alkalinity, and therefore assist the body in getting rid of some of the health problems listed above.




You’ll get the greatest health benefits from apple cider vinegar that is made from organic apples, fermented using traditional methods, raw (unpasteurized) and unfiltered. Be sure to drink apple cider vinegar diluted or it eats away at tooth enamel and can cause burns to the sensitive tissues in your mouth and throat. There have also been reports of apple cider vinegar supplements (in capsule form) causing permanent tissue damage of the esophagus. So use apple cider vinegar in liquid form, diluted with water.

I have been experimenting with a few tinctures and so far I found this one to be the best. It has the diluted apple cider vinegar but also has the baking soda and lime juice which are alkaline and help raise the pH. pH is important in decreasing inflammation. Inflammation is the foundational problem to all the above listed symptoms. The only difference in symptoms is how the body decides to manifest the inflammation. Acne is inflammation of the skin, acid reflux is inflammation of the stomach, allergies is inflammation of the sinuses. arthritis is inflammation of the joints. etc. The spices are added to the tincture because cayenne will increase circulation which is beneficial in healing and turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties.

1Tbsp. organic apple cider vinegar
1/2 organic lime squeezed
1/4 tsp. baking soda
the baking soda will fizz, so wait for it to fizz out
a pinch of cayenne
a pinch of turmeric
a pinch of black pepper
1/2 cup warm water

Drink 20 minutes or more before breakfast every day.
Make sure the water is warm not hot, for hot water will change the properties of the vinegar and lime juice.

To read other benefits of apple cider vinegar, 

read my blog.

Formaldehyde Toxicity

A common chemical that I help patients detox in my office is formaldehyde. Now you may be asking yourself, "isn't that what they use to preserve dead bodies?" and the answer is yes! Formaldehyde has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Even with formaldehyde labeled as such it is used in new clothes, new cars, new carpets, new mattresses, new etc. It is that new clothes smell. Industries use formaldehyde as a fire deterrent. So if the warehouse catches on fire products are less likely to burn if they are sprayed with formaldehyde. Solution: wash all your new clothes once and when getting a new carpet or new couch air ventilation is key because it will eventually gas off.

Formaldehyde is also found in nail polish, wood pressed furniture, hair dye and straightener treatments, other treated lumber, and cigarette smoke. People who consume diet food will also need to detox formaldehyde for better health for aspartame (the artificial sweetener that is used instead of sugar) is a chemical that the body doesn't know how to breakdown so it turns it into formaldehyde where if enough aspartame is digested formaldehyde builds up in the body. Formaldehyde is also in vaccines as a preservative including flu vaccines. A great alternative to the flu vaccine is flu nosode which is a tincture we sell in the office that provides homeopathic aid in relief of flu symptoms. Formulated specifically for this year's flu strain it can also be taken as prevention against the flu or as an alternative to getting the flu shot.  If you already received the flu shot and are having symptoms of any sort let me know and we can help the body detox from it. 

Formaldehyde toxicity can cause headaches, migraines, skin rashes, allergies, asthma, and any type of ears, nose, throat symptoms. Best way to avoid it is to wash new clothes once and notice if you get symptoms while shopping too long in a store and make note if it's after 15 minutes of being in the store or 60 minutes, etc. and cut the time you shop so you are within your range to not get symptoms until you are healthier to handle exposure to formaldehyde at a later date. Also use natural hair dyes and nail polish and don't eat or drink anything with aspartame in it. Formaldehyde levels in homes can also be reduced by ensuring adequate ventilation, moderate temperatures, and reduced humidity levels through the use of dehumidifiers.

The Benefits of Oil Pulling

Oil pulling was first introduced in Ayurvedic medicine. I finally decided to blog about it as I ask many of my patients to do it. Whether it's for oral healthcare, digestive health, to clear out the sinuses or an immune system booster I've seen it help many patients in many ways!

Oil pulling as we know it today, was introduced in 1992 by Dr. F. Karach, MD. He claimed that oil pulling could cure a variety of illnesses ranging from heart disease and digestive troubles to hormonal disorders. Dr. Karach’s method of oil pulling emphasis swishing, not gargling, the oil in the mouth. The oil is “worked” in the mouth by swishing and chewing it around the mouth and ‘swizzling’ it (pushing it through the teeth) for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. The best time is in the morning before eating breakfast, but can be done before any meal on an empty stomach.

Oil pulling instructions:

Use 1-1.5 spoonfuls of unrefined, high quality, organic sesame seed oil (non-toasted) and 'swizzle" in your mouth for 15-20 minutes. Sesame seed oil is the best oil to swish with.  I love using Banyan Daily Swish

Once completed, spit the oil out (we recommend spitting in the trash as it can clog your sink or toilet over time).

Follow it by a thorough mouth rinse with water.  Warm water with sea salt is best.

Never swallow the used oil because it is loaded with bacteria, toxins, pus, and mucous. It is a good idea to brush your teeth afterwards to really clean out any leftover toxins and wash the sink afterwards as well if you don't spit it out into the trash.

Benefits:

Strengthens teeth
Can help reverse gingivitis
Prevents tooth decay/whitens teeth
Strengthen immune system
Improve digestion
Reduce skin problems (acne, eczema, psoriasis)
Reduce allergies
Lessen headaches
Help hormonal imbalance
Clear out sinuses

Tips:

Be sure you are using a high quality, organic, non-toasted sesame seed oil.
Set timer for 15-20 minutes because it's going to feel like a long time and I don't want you to guess that it's been 15 minutes when it's only been 5 minutes.

Precaution:

If you are allergic to a particular brand of oil, then change the brand of oil.

DO NOT SWALLOW.

One of the first cleansing symptoms you will experience is an increased flow of mucous from your throat and sinuses. Mucous drainage is one of the body’s methods of removing toxins. While you are oil pulling mucous may build in the back of your throat. You may even have to expel the oil and clear the mucous from your throat before reaching a full 20 minutes. If so, take another spoonful of oil and continue swishing for a full 15-20 minutes.

I usually do oil pulling when I am feeling sick to help clean my lymphatic system and boost the immune system. Your lymph takes about 7 minutes to circulate through the body. It is important to do oil pulling for a minimum of 15 minutes so you can clean out all of the lymph at least twice. But if during the 15 minutes your mouth begins to tire or stomach becomes sensitive start with 5 minutes and work your way up to 15-20 minutes.