If you have ever had a fever, or red and itchy skin after an insect bite, a wound with pus, or swollen glands in your throat: congratulations. These are indicators of an immune system hard at work quelling invaders.
Read moreWhat Psoriasis, Lupus, Rosacea, Hashimoto’s, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes, Coeliac Disease, Graves and Sjogren’s all share
Do you feel tired, with aching muscles or joints and perhaps skin, mood or digestive problems – just never quite right? Lab tests might indicate attacking autoantibodies: protein markers of autoimmune disorders.
After a period of physical or psychological stress – perhaps a major infection or personal loss – the body’s heightened response might not return to normal. Your immune system is designed to defend against pathogens (viral, bacterial, parasitic or fungal), other invaders, and damaged cells such as cancerous ones and then return to a watchful calm. Instead it can become chronically hyper-vigilant and assault its own tissue, or protein fractions from common foods (perhaps gluten, dairy or potato). Read more
With this report discover:
• The inexpensive food in every supermarket that can create the ultimate barrier to invaders. How – and the important issue of when – to use it.
• The two most likely food intolerances with chronic fungal and yeast infections. And how undiagnosed food sensitivities can be the real culprit behind frequent infections of all kinds.
• Why iron supplements and calcium-enriched milks can be dangerous.
• How bloating, and tiredness after eating can lower your resistance to invaders – why these symptoms occur and the easy solution.
…and check out my 3 minute cellulite reduction method.
You might know something about the cardiovascular system and can imagine how extensive it is. In fact, your blood vessels if stretched out measure an astounding 96,000 kilometres and could make two trips around the world. But how much do you know about the circulatory system that is double that size?
Your lymphatic system has twice as much lymph as blood, and twice as many lymph vessels as blood vessels. It is the most major part of your immune system. With your help it can keep you free from infection and cancer; help prevent waste and fluid retention and thus cellulite and sluggish circulation; and maximise specific vitamin absorption for healthy skin, hair, nails, respiratory system and more.
Your gut tends to be discreet. It may occasionally gain your attention with gurgling or gas, but it usually remains invisible and ignored.
Meanwhile foods are ever temptingly on display. They can trigger programmed visual, salivary and emotional responses. You select, swallow and forget. Though some people have the benefit of chronic discomfort to inspire recall and analysis (see TIPS: Pain).
Every modern convenience that makes your life easier from electricity to cars; every treat from the global marketplace that you might buy as pantry basics from South American chocolate to South East Asian rice: all are courtesy of a cascade of events picking up speed some 250 years ago.
The Industrial Revolution forever transformed our lives and expectations. It particularly gathered force with the development of the steam engine which powered ships across oceans with unprecedented speed and efficiency. This opened up new markets as more perishable cargo could at last be traded to numerous and further destinations.
Unfortunately this fresh cargo included slaves. The British – master of the seas and many adjacent continents – and other Europeans brutally abducted black Africans and transported them across the world under merciless conditions. They were forced to work until death on the sugar cane plantations of the West Indies and later the United States. The product was so profitable it was called ‘white gold’ and became the world’s largest and most lucrative industry. It enabled nice, Christian ladies to offer hospitality in the form of a dainty sweetener to accompany another exotic import, tea from China (where the British introduced and profited from opium – but that, boys and girls, is another story).
Zinc is very busy in your brain. It is needed by the hippocampus, which is the central train station for relaying messages to and from the ceaselessly busy nervous system, endocrine system and the rest of your body. Without zinc, people do poorly in both memory and cognitive tests and are more likely to suffer mood disorders. Zinc activates brain centres that process data from taste and smell sensors and thus influences appetite. People with anorexia and bulimia usually suffer from low levels, which distort their appetites further. Athletes and those who perspire profusely lose this mineral through fluid loss; as do those with diarrhea, vomiting or after gastrointestinal surgery.
Among the industrialised nations, health statisticians predict that those who are children now will be the first generation that has poorer health, more obesity and a shorter lifespan than their parents. With the many benefits of affluence and education in such countries, how has this tragic state developed?
Your adrenal glands are only the size of large grapes. Yet from this tiny power base comes your ability to manage challenges, vitality, sleep, weight, direct master hormones, and thwart illness.
A triangular cap-like adrenal gland sits on top of each of your two kidneys. These are situated just below and under your lower rib cage on either side of the spine. The adrenals are part of the endocrine system that produces and releases minute but transformative chemical messengers called hormones. These direct the transformation at puberty, enable reproduction, and respond instantly to every emotional trigger. Yet over your lifetime the entire volume of hormones released would not even fill a thimble.