Resistance Bands 101: Good or Bad

Resistance Bands 101: Good or Bad

Why I don’t like gym machines

Why I don’t like gym machines

Do I Have A Parasite?

If this is a question you are asking yourself, then more likely then not you may have some un-welcomed company! It certainly amazes me within my practice that so many people think that having chronic digestive problems, gas, constipation, skin rashes, pains in the stomach area, fatigue and other “vague” symptoms are just something you have to live with.

Parasitic infections contribute to a variety of major diseases including Chron’s disease, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, rheumatoid symptoms, chronic fatigue syndrome, and AIDS.  In one study 50 percent of the people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome had intestinal parasites. This percentage is even higher in people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

How many people do you know suffering from chronic fatigue and have been ill for months, but doctors can’t find anything wrong with them? Any person with chronic gastrointestinal complaints such as bloating, diarrhea, abdominal pain, excessive gas, chronic constipation, multiple allergies especially to food, and unexplained fatigue, should be screened for parasites. People, we may be living longer, but we are not living healthier and although there are many factors that contribute to this decline in health, parasites may be one of the most overlooked! If your health problem persists, think parasites!!

What is a parasite?

Parasites are organisms that live in or on another organism (the host) at the expense of that host. These parasites reap havoc on your digestive system, and as mentioned above often leave you malnourished and with a plethora of debilitating symptoms.

Parasites feed off your nutrients and love sugar! The destruction within the digestive tract leads to digestive issues and often constipation. Many parasites, including roundworms, thrive on a body that is constipated and eating sweet foods, even natural sources such as juices. Other parasites get their food from the cells in your body.  They attach themselves to these cells and are able to derive their nutrition from the cell itself. These are significantly more dangerous then parasites that stay in the digestive tract, because they can travel to places in the body where they can do damage to vital organs.

What most people do not realize is that we will all be infected with some form of a parasite throughout our lives.  In fact, no organ is immune, your blood, your muscles, your heart, your lungs, and your brain are all possible sites for parasitic infestation.  About one-third of the parasites in humans live in the digestive tract and the other two-thirds live somewhere else in the body

Parasites multiply at an incredible rate and have the ability to remain in your body for 10,20, and even 30 years! In one study done in 1979, 600 British former POW’s from World War II were examined.  Even thirty years later, 15 percent of these soldiers were still infected with a parasite, Strongyloides, acquired during that war!

The longer a parasite is in the body, the more damage it will do, depending on the target sight of infection. For example, if the parasite is in the intestinal tract the body will produce more mucous in order to protect the intestinal cells, interfering with digestion and over time, leading to  malabsorption and malnourishment.

How Do You Get Parasites?

Parasites live everywhere and are commonly transmitted to humans in diverse ways. Some of the ways parasites are spread include:

• insect bites
• walking barefoot
• eating under-cooked meats and fish
• Poor inspection by government officials
• eating raw food such as salad, fruits and other vegetables- U.S. imports 30 billion tons of food a year. Some of our produce comes from developing nations where sanitation facilities are less advanced or they commonly practice the use of human feces as fertilizer.
• food handlers – people who prepare food, as well as the general population, do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Many parasites are spread by fecal-oral contact, this lack of personal hygiene may be one of the greatest factors in the spread of parasites.
• placing hands in the mouth after having contact with something that has a parasite in or on it
• sharing drinks
• kissing
• sexual contact
• inhaling dust that contains the eggs or cysts of these organisms
• drinking water from lakes, rivers, and streams, and creeks
• contact with pets and other animals

Most common parasites:

In the United States, the most common human parasites, apart from head lice, are the microscopic protozoa varieties that are transmitted by air, food, water, insect animals, and other people.

Giardia lamblia-  is a single cell protozoan and known to be the most frequent cause of non-bacterial water-borne diarrhea in North America. Found in waters of lakes, streams and oceans, giardia is a cyst in its survival form in the environment and infective stage of the organism.  After swallowing one of these cysts, it reaches the intestines where it changes to its next stage and multiplies. It can also coat the lining of the intestine and prevent digestion and assimilation of foods.

Entamoeba histolytica- is a single cell parasitic ameba that infects predominantly humans and other primates. It reaches the small intestine where this parasite is satisfied to grow and multiply in the open spaces of the bowel, where it feeds on bacteria, tissue or blood cells and is known to cause dysentery and injury to the liver and lungs

Blastocystis hominis- linked to acute and chronic illness, this organism infects the intestines where the small intestine meets the colon.  It is difficult to eradicate because of its ability to lodge itself into the wall of the intestine.

Dientamoeba fragilis- is associated with diarrhea, abdominal pains, intense anal itching, and loose stools

Cryptosporidium – is a single cell, microscopic animal that can infect a human’s digestive tract and cause severe gastrointestinal disease. This tiny parasite has become a significant threat to those with low immune function or with AIDS.

What are some of the symptoms associated with parasites?

The most commonly reported symptoms of parasitic infection are diarrhea and abdominal pain.  It is common that over half of the people with parasites are without obvious symptoms, but there still may be some non-specific ones that could suggest that parasites are somewhere in the body:

• Foul-smelling stools that are worse in the afternoon and evening
• Bowel habits have changes over several days or weeks or even months. Now there are soft or watery bowel movements or occasional constipation.
• The presence of abdominal cramps and rumblings and gurglings in the stomach area at times different from hunger and eating.
• Pains in the chest or heartburn
• Sore and swollen breast unrelated to menstrual cycle
• Flulike symptoms (coughing, wheezing and fever)
• Food allergies to many different foods
• Itching around the anus, especially at night
• Losing weight, yet have a ravenous appetite

What do you do if you do have a parasite?

It is important to understand and be aware of how parasites spread and the sources of potential infection. It makes sense that you will reduce your risk to parasites when you reduce or eliminate the factors from your environment that promote parasitic infection.  A healthy immune system is the best protection from catching parasites.

As mentioned earlier…if your health problem persists, think parasites! It is recommended to work with your local health care practitioner to help in identifying if there could be parasitic activity.

Some questions that you can ask yourself as well present to your health care provider:

Have you ever traveled out of the country?

Have you eaten foods that you find questionable?

Do you have pets that sleep in your bed, have they been dewormed regularly or do they often lick your face?

Have you ever been on antibiotics? – excessive use of antibiotics encourages the spread of parasites as they weaken the bodies ability to fight back.

Do you frequent restaurants?

Do you or any family members work over seas?

How is your diet? – poor diet leads to a sluggish bowel, imbalances in microflora in the gut and this encourages the overgrowth of pathogens!

Could your partner have been infected? – parasites can easily pass through sexual fluids…if one person gets treated, so must the other to avoid reinfecting.

Other steps you will need to take…

You will need to establish what type of parasite you have and the only way to do this is through a full stool lab.  It is recommended you request a lab that requires several samples (the large intestine averages 60in. in length)

Once you have identified the pathogen you will need to begin treatment.  There are several parasite cleanses out there so you will need to consult with your health care practitioner on which one is best for you.

Once you have rid the body of the pathogen it is recommended that you proceed with a full gut healing program in order to restore proper digestion.

Jeanne Rubin

H.Pylori: Basic Herbal Reommendations

H.Pylori: Basic herbal education

Plantar Fasciitis and Your Foot Wear

As a born and raised San Diego beach girl, as well as having spent 10 years of my life living in the islands, unless the temperatures drop below 50 and the ground is wet, it is very rare you will find me in anything but “slippers” otherwise identified as flip flops! That was of course until I began experiencing foot pain…now you would think that, being an exercise specialist it would have been quite clear what was causing my pain, however, being human, I found myself in a state of denial and deeply saddened that my relationship with my “slippers,”  may very well be coming to an end!

What I was certain of was, that what I was experiencing was indeed a mild form of plantar fasciitis, however, because I had jumped back on the running wagon and my pain increased right along with my mileage, it only made sense that it was the running creating the issue , right? Wrong,  after changing running shoes, modifying workouts, etc., it was as if the Gods reached down and slapped me upside the head with the following article I am about to share with you!

Needless to say, I am pain free, still running and my slippers wearing days…well, as they say, you can take the girl from the island but will never take the island from the girl!

“Flip Flops Bad For Feet”

By Christopher Wanjek, Special to LiveScience

Flip-flops are named for the sound they make when you walk — flip, flop, flip, flop — but they could have been called ouch-umphs, the sound you’ll make after wearing them all the time.

Researchers at Auburn University have found that wearing flip-flops alters the way one walks, changing the gait in subtle ways that can lead to serious sole, heel and ankle problems. They presented these findings earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis.

Casual flip-flop use is fine, they said. But driven by a trend that less is better when it comes to healthy footwear, flip-flops have moved beyond the domain of beach bums to take their place among sturdier sandals as proper summer fashion day and night.

Flip-flops might feel good because they keep your feet cool. At issue, though, is their utter lack of foot support.

Walk this way

The Auburn team videotaped 39 flip-flop-wearing volunteers and noticed how they scrunched their toes to keep the flip-flip on the foot while the heel lifted in the air. This motion stretches the plantar fascia, the connective tissue that runs from heel to toe, causing inflammation, pain along the sole, heel spurs and tired feet in general.

These symptoms were actually what flip-flop wearers at Auburn University had reported upon returning to classes in the fall. An entire summer of flip-flop wearing had taken its toll.

The researchers also found that the volunteers altered their gait , taking shorter strides and turning their ankles inward, likely to keep the flip-flop from falling off. This, the researchers worry, can cause long-term ankle and hip problems.

Sandals with heel straps are the healthier choice because your foot doesn’t need to clench to keep the footwear secure. These kinds of shoes offer better arch and heel support, too.

Better barefoot?

Barefooters, or those who shall remain shoeless, believe that walking barefoot is healthier than walking in any kind of shoe. They use the “natural” argument to explain how humans were never meant to wear shoes and that they take joy in what they call walking as nature intended.

No one can deny that joy, aside from podiatrists making a fist-load of money on their bruised feet. But as stated before in this column, nature has no intent. Nature is merely a framework in which humans evolved to live about 20 years, mate and die.

There’s a reason why humans created shoes tens of thousands of years ago. Nature sucks. Aside from cold snow, blistering hot sand or jagged rocks, there was disease-ridden muck to negotiate. Not wearing clothes is natural, but clothes become a necessity in the 90 percent of the world that gets too cold to stay naked.

Groups such as the Society for Barefoot Living have captivating reasons for going barefoot most of the time, even for tromps through the city. Walking barefoot on clean pavement doesn’t seem to hurt your feet, ankles or knees if you ease yourself into this routine. In this respect, walking barefoot is healthier than walking in ill-fitting or flimsy shoes, such as flip-flops or high-heals.

This works, however, only because we live in an industrialized country that has created numerous unnatural things, such as sewage systems and smoothly paved public areas.

A stroll through the doo

Reality is better relayed by groups such as Shoes for Humanity, cognizant of the fact that worms and myriad other parasites can gain access into the body through the foot. In most parts of the world, going barefoot is stubborn sign of impoverishment, not a natural, healthy alternative to footwear.

The risk of contracting hookworm is low for American barefooters because the chance of stepping in human feces containing the hookworm larvae is low. Not so for the estimated one billion humans worldwide infected with hookworm.

Not so for dogs, either, who for the most part don’t wear shoes, aside from atrocities committed backstage at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Dogs get canine hookworm from walking in doggie doo. All land animals are susceptible to infections through their feet.

America barefooters still face real risks, such as glass and other sharp objects that can carry the tetanus neurotoxin. Barefooters also run the risk of never being invited to an Asian home, because they can’t take off their feet.

Jeanne Rubin

www.eastwesthealing.com