Written by: Emanuela Visone, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Who here has heard your inner voice calling to you? Sometimes it is a low whisper in the back of your head and other times it can be an overwhelming call to arms to get our attention. It is our gut wisdom also known as our intuition. It is there to guide us on what decision is best for us. But many times, we choose to go against what our gut instinct is telling us which usually ends up with regret and a hard lesson learned, hopefully.
My failing health made me pay attention in ways I never thought I would ever have to. But I was destined to win the battle over my discouragement and to overcome my body’s inability to repair itself. I decided to listen to my gut feeling. It told me to “clean-up” my diet once and for all. My body needed more to heal. It couldn’t do its job to improve in its own time without the proper nutritional support. I decided to provide the best quality foods to nourish every cell in my body. I needed to be strong enough to believe in my body’s healing powers. I wanted the confirmation from natural healing authorities that would assure me that I was on the right path.
There is a new medical discipline called Nutritional Medicine being practiced today by holistic doctors and health coaches like myself outlining how to address health challenges. Many of the books written by nutritional medicine doctors present information as to why degenerative conditions occur and logical step by step solutions to such conditions using diet and supplements. Thousands of people have followed the Nutritional Medicine health model and as a result, they are experiencing health and vitality. It truly transformed my life as well as the lives of many of my clients. I will share with you in the next few pages what I have learned from these doctors, because if the following information makes sense to you, then you will be motivated to explore what we have to offer you to address your own health challenges. Nutritional Medicine The Nutritional Medicine principles support the following:
1) better digestion and assimilation of foods using probiotics and enzymes;
2) better nutrition through nutrient rich food supplements and
3) increased protection against free radical damage (oxidative stress) through whole food antioxidants.
Tens of thousands of people have used this health model to heal themselves from many chronic degenerative conditions. Additionally, many of the studies and books written by Nutritional Medicine doctors including my book, Healing Through Nature’s Medicine, A Story of Hope give us the scientific reasons behind why this specific health model and the supplements used have helped with a wide variety of health-related conditions.
Today there is a very large number of functional, allopathic and naturopathic doctors practicing the Nutritional Medicine approach to health.
What Is Nutritional Medicine?
Nutritional Medical physicians believe that most degenerative conditions have their origin in the malfunction of the digestive tract and the liver's elimination processes. In other words, illness can be directly related to problems of the digestive and liver detoxification systems and their related influence on immune, nervous and endocrine system functions. Therefore, when the health of the digestive and liver detoxification systems is addressed, the body is given the opportunity to reverse many degenerative conditions. If the degenerative condition is labeled lupus, diabetes, or eczema, etc., a Nutritional Medicine doctor will first recommend addressing the health of the gastrointestinal tract. Once the GI tract is normalized, then the liver detoxification system should be supported and strengthened.
Today, through the efforts of Nutritional Medicine doctors, we have hundreds of clinical studies and scientific research that confirm what many of us have heard so often from folk medicine practitioners: "Stomach problems are the cause of all ills" or "Death begins in the colon."
Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., wrote an article called "How Problems with Digestion Can Cause Illness Anywhere", and in this article he explains why you should address the health of the gastrointestinal tract first, no matter what the name of the degenerative condition. He explains that "new information on the dynamics of the body make it clear that conditions in the digestive tract affect the entire system" (Nichols, et al., 1999, p.125). The "...degradation of the gastrointestinal environment is one of the primary points at which health is lost. What we now know is that the same toxins associated with GI dysfunction are frequently absorbed and distributed to other parts of the body. First, they place a burden on the liver and the immune system. If liver overload occurs, there will be spill over, and some of the toxins will be passed on to other organs or tissues" (p. 125).
"Often, it's a weak link in the system that will be hit by the damage - an organ that can be anywhere in the body that is most likely to be vulnerable. The vulnerability may be inherited, caused by physical injury, toxic exposure, or poor diet" (p.125). For example, "if the sensitive system is the lungs, toxins that originate in the gut and circulate in the bloodstream may manifest as asthma or allergies" (p.125). If the brain is the sensitive system, then it can manifest as anxiety or depression.
Len Saputo, M.D., in his article, “Harmful Flora", also believes that if the gastrointestinal tract goes out of balance and the liver detoxification system breaks down, our entire immune system can malfunction in three ways. First, it can be weakened, and the result called an immune suppression disease (cancer and AIDS). Second, it can overreact and become hyper responsive to normal stimuli; this occurs in asthma, eczema, migraine, and food allergies. Third, a malfunctioning immune system can cause auto immune reactions, where antibodies target our own tissues, as in rheumatoid arthritis or lupus (p.60).
Jerry Stine, M.D., in his article, "How Digestion Works", explains that the gastrointestinal tract is the largest immune organ in our body. Eighty percent of all our protective immune globulins are produced in the digestive tract (p.16). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that when this large, strategically placed immune system member isn't working well, our defenses are lowered and once our barriers are down, it becomes more difficult to defend against invaders.
Nutritional Medicine Strategies to Reverse Degenerative Conditions:
Nutritional Medicine doctors including, Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, Dr. Len Saputo and Dr. Jerry Stine, believe that cleansing and supporting the GI tract and the liver can and will clear the body of any and most degenerative conditions.
- First you detoxify the GI tract.
- Then get the liver detoxification system working.
- And finally clean up the downstream consequences, which includes the toxins in the tissues and cells.
Nutritional Medicine doctors believe that you can't deal with the downstream conditions (symptoms in the body such as lupus, arthritis, eczema,.etc.), until you've treated the upstream problem(s) in the gut and liver (p.132). When you clean up the upstream issues and the liver, then the downstream consequences tend to go away.
Nutritional Medicine Solution for Most Degenerative Conditions. The 4Rs Solution:
1) Remove: Abnormal kinds/amounts of intestinal microorganisms (parasites, bacterial pathogens, small intestinal overgrowth such as yeast, and food antigens). This can be done by repairing "leaky" intestinal membranes.
2) Replace: Hydrochloric acid, enzymes, and fiber deficiency can be addressed and replaced with friendly bacteria, digestive enzymes and fiber supplements.
3) Restore: Symbiotic bacteria and GI bacteria through the use of full spectrum friendly bacteria (L. acidophilus, B. bifidus, L. planetarium, L. salivarius, L. bulgaricus, etc.).
4) Repair: Replace or augment with nutrients necessary to support healing of intestinal lining, plus adequacy of calories, and adequacy of fiber. Support the liver detoxification system through the use of antioxidants and food based nutritional supplements (pp. 181-182).
The Difference is in the Quality of The Nutritional Supplements:
There are a multitude of allopathic and naturopathic doctors practicing Nutritional Medicine today, and they recommend supporting better digestion, better nutrition, and better protection against oxidative stress. However, when it comes to supplements, most Nutritional Medicine doctors recommend standard man-made supplements in their isolated, single, separated or chemically manufactured form, such as zinc, copper, vitamins B, C, E and beta carotene, to reverse degenerative conditions.
Vitamins and minerals should not be taken in single and chemically manufactured forms. For example, Vitamins are intricate, interrelated, integrated, united organic nutritive groups. Nature made them as an indistinguishable part of foods for the benefit of human health. Vitamins are inseparable as working nutrients from trace elements, minerals, proteins, and other nutrients.
Chemists have attempted to isolate and identify some of the components of these food complexes, labeling the seemingly "active" elements as vitamins or other nutrients. Yet there is no possible way that even the sum of the parts is equal to the whole. It is only the whole food, intact and unaltered, that works as a nutritional source. The isolated parts are not recognized by the body as foods. In large amounts, these isolated chemicals function more like drugs, which stimulate or suppress biochemical functions, instead of providing nourishment for the cells to carry on their vital activities.
Natural, food-source vitamins are enzymatically alive. Man-made, synthetic vitamins are dead chemicals. Human health requires "live" biochemicals. It is simply a matter of chemistry versus biochemistry.
I believe that nutritional medicine doctors are "right on the money" when it comes to explaining why degenerative conditions occur, but when it comes to the solution which is their supplement program, they are mainly providing the typical man-made and chemically manufactured supplements. Many of us prefer the use of whole food supplements based on the philosophy that "Food is the best medicine." Searching for the Ultimate Whole Food Supplements: There are certainly better alternatives than man-made supplements, i.e., organic whole food supplements. Whole food supplements are far superior in their quality and effectiveness for reversing degenerative conditions because they are produced in their natural and complex configuration. Why whole food products work better is based on the philosophy that the human body is a marvelously designed living organism with the ability to grow, regulate, repair, and defend itself when given natural, high quality, full spectrum nutrients. Not too many companies produce high quality whole foods supplements. However, one such company that has been in the whole food supplement business for twenty-five plus years is New Earth from Klamath Falls, Oregon. Their philosophy of producing whole food supplements is very impressive and they believe in preserving the quality of their whole food supplements from the time the foods are harvested to the time they are introduced to the public as supplements. Here is the website so you can look and read about the amazing products: www.newearth.com/2310066 and feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have. Hundreds of thousands of people have been helped with our whole food products. I also use these amazing products when guiding a pet owner on how to heal their dog’s irritable bowel syndrome. This should not be a surprise to anyone because when it comes to healing the body, there is nothing more powerful than supplementing with whole foods, especially if they are organically grown. If your goal is to find a natural remedy for your health challenge, may we recommend that you follow this health model which is the same as the Nutritional Medicine health model with the exception that we recommend the use of wholefoods and not man-made supplements: 1. Better digestion and assimilation of foods using probiotics and enzyme supplements. 2. Better nutrition through food-based supplements (consuming nutrient rich foods such as wheat grass, bee pollen, blue green algae...etc.). 3. Better protection against free radical damage (oxidative stress) through whole food supplements (wheat sprouts, red algae, wheatgrass...etc.). With the use of whole food supplements, you can improve the GI tract environment, decrease the burden of the toxins, and thereby take the stress off the liver. With less toxins there is less need for a constant high-level defense effort and everything in the body just starts to work better. Dr. Jeffrey Anderson summarizes the whole concept of healing so beautifully when he said: "you can't deal with the downstream problems (symptoms in the body) until you have addressed the upstream problem(s) (i.e., malfunctions in the gut)" (p. 132).
"Who here feels 100% confident after reading this article that they know exactly what steps to take to get unstuck and follow through on how to restore your health naturally or how to live a healthier lifestyle?”
“Well, that's because we've actually left out 3 key ingredients that put all of this together. Without these 3 ingredients, we stay in the same patterns and repeat the same old behaviors that keep us stuck.
Some of us do well for a little while. We get some new information, renew our commitment to follow through, take consistent action for a week or two. We convince ourselves that "this time it's going to be different" and then, what happens? Our motivation fizzles out, we fall off track.
How many people know WHAT to do, but don't always do it? Yeah, most of us. That is because knowing isn't enough. It's not what motivates us to action. We are suffering from a high fat and processed food diet. We’ve got a lot of theory, but we’re not putting it into practice.
The 3 key ingredients that bring this all together are The Right SYSTEM, SUPPORT and ACCOUNTABILITY.
We've got information. You don't need more information. What we DO need is to “make this time different”. Someone to encourage our progress and to be your cheerleader, and someone to kick us in the butt when we make poor choices.”
Take the first step and put an end to dragging yourself through every day of your life, waking up tired and not having the energy to meet the demands of everyday life.
Your stomach is a mess once again and you’ve been avoiding family and friend get-togethers because most likely you will end up with a bathroom emergency. The thought alone stresses you out!
I’d like to invite you to a complimentary Total Transformation Breakthrough Session.
This is a 45-minute private consultation where we will look at why you’re stuck and how to get unstuck, and what your plan of action is to experience a total transformation and start living your best life now.
And, for the first 5 people that schedule a session, you will receive a complimentary and autographed copy of my book, Healing Through Nature’s Medicine, A Story of Hope.
Learn step by step what I did to lose 24 pounds in 4 months with minimal exercise, how I reversed my malfunctioning thyroid and adrenal fatigue as well as completely shrunk a mass and nodules on it. Are you ready to say YES to honoring yourself?
Click on the link below and remember happiness is a choice, to make a choice is utilizing your freewill to choose. Courage is getting out of your own way to let happiness happen in your life in Abundance!
You may also email me at embodyvitalityconsulting@gmail.com or call me on 917-597-3512.
Follow Emanuela on her Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and visit her website for more info.
Emanuela Visone, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Emanuela is a leading expert in restoring health and a Master Transformational, Health, and life coach. After 20yrs recruiting in the finance industry, she discovered her true calling for naturopathy and helping people and their pets throughout the US. The value she provides her clients has put them in a position to gain better health and live a more fulfilling life. Having restored her own health, Emanuela is excited to share her victory and help others do the same, from thyroid conditions, shrinking nodules, blood pressure, hormones, and much more. This inspired her to write her first book, “Healing Through Nature’s Medicine,” A Story of Hope. Having restored her St. Barnard’s health, Emanuela coaches many pet owners on becoming their own best healer. She loves spending time with her family and friends, the outdoors, and her deepest passion is helping others transform their health.
References: Nichols, Trent W., and Faass, Nancy. (1999). Optimal Digestion. New York: Avon Books, Inc.
Donia Alawi, Researcher
