Dr. Cathy Sevcik, Naturopathic Doctor and Bowen Therapist

NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR & BOWEN THERAPIST

TMJ News Guaranteed to Make Your Jaw Drop

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Eliminating MSG and aspartame in your diet could eliminate the jaw pain of TMJ.
Eliminating MSG and aspartame in your diet could eliminate the jaw pain of TMJ.

Of all the joints in the human body, the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is one that causes a lot of pain and problems – what’s known as TMJ disorder or TMJD.

Joint pain usually increases with age but TMJD afflicts more young people than old. Lifestyle and hormone levels may be to blame.

More women than men suffer from TMJD – about double. High estrogen levels have been indicated in the mechanism of action. Research shows that women taking oral contraceptives or other forms of supplemental estrogen have more jaw pain than women who don’t. Younger women tend to have higher estrogen levels which may account for the age reversal prevalence.

What’s interesting is the link between TMJD and diet specifically related to glutamate levels.

Glutamate is an amino acid (a building block of protein) that is also a neurotransmitter – meaning that the nervous system uses this substance to signal information. Neurotransmitters are either excitatory or inhibitory. Glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. It is also a precursor to GABA which is the most abundant inhibitory neurotransmitter.

We need glutamate to do work in our nervous system and we historically got it from the protein in our diet. With modern food manufacturing though, glutamate has snuck into our diet in unusually high amounts in such food additives as MSG and aspartame.

You know where this discussion is going.

Research is underway that clearly shows that MSG consumption increases TMJ pain in people who do and don’t have TMJD. It probably increases pain sensitivity everywhere in the body but the research I looked at focused on the main muscle of chewing called the masseter muscle. Pain is such a significant health problem in our world that finding fundamental ways to reduce it are essential.

Both MSG and aspartame are broken down into glutamate.

It seems to me that an easy way to reduce pain is to reduce or eliminate the excessive dietary glutamate by avoiding both MSG and aspartame.

From the words of Michael Pollan, don’t eat anything your great grandmother did not eat. She did not eat MSG or aspartame.

Eat Healthy. Sleep. Repeat

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For a more restorative sleep, eat a healthy high fiber diet.
For a more restorative sleep, eat a health high fiber diet.

A study published in the January 2016 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine reports that sleep quality improves with certain diet characteristics.

In a sleep lab, researchers controlled the intake of food of participants by monitoring the consumption of fiber, saturated fat and sugar. Here is a summary of their findings when participants ate healthier choices:

• Less time taken to fall asleep
• More time spent in slow-wave sleep (deeper, more restful)
• Fewer times aroused from sleep

An interesting finding was that high saturated fat was associated with less deep sleep.  This finding may be confounded with other variables such as lower fiber associated with higher saturated fat (and thus the result being due to fiber).  The study was not robust enough to validate these issues.  But it does suggest that further research should be performed and that this finding may have implications for certain dietary patterns such as the paleo diet, ketogenic diets and the Atkins diet.

Very little research has been done on the impact of sleep on sleep disorders. There is hope that more research will follow to confirm these results and tease out the mechanisms.

Preliminary theories regarding these findings include:

• High carbohydrate intake delays circadian rhythm and reduces melatonin secretion. This would explain the increased time taken to fall asleep with excess sugar and carbohydrate consumption.
• The blood sugar dysregulation resulting from sugar consumption also disturbs circadian rhythm, probably by changing cortisol secretion. Ideally, cortisol should be high in the morning and decline throughout the day and remaining low over night. Blood sugar issues can change this pattern, disrupting sleep.
• Fiber consumption improves blood sugar regulation so part of the improvement on sleep may be through cortisol regulation.
• Fiber consumption improves the microbiome and the ever more intriguing microbiome-gut-brain axis must play a role in sleep quality

This research certainly confirms my clinical findings. When patients eliminate food sensitivities, reduce/avoid refined sugar, improve their digestion and eat a higher fiber diet, they sleep better.

I keep seeing over and over that a healthy high fiber diet is a linchpin in the harmonious operation of every physiological system.

Is Kelp the New Kale?

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Kelp is a nutritional and environmental champion.
Kelp is a nutritional and environmental champion.

The Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) predicts that seaweed will take the stage in 2016 as a new superfood.

Seaweeds, also called sea vegetables, can be high in protein, B vitamins including B12, iodine and omega 3 fatty acids. They also contain a whole host of plant phytochemicals which give them their bold colors. So there is no question that this extensive species of plants are nutritious.

Where sea vegetables really shine are in their potential to save our planet and feed our populations.

Some interesting facts:

The ocean covers 70% of the earth and produces less than 2% of our food.

Farming occupies 40% of the earth’s land surface and uses almost 75% of our fresh water.

Sea vegetables absorb dissolved nitrogen, phosphorous and carbon dioxide making its footprint negative! Increasing the amount of seaweed under cultivation could reverse water acidification, caused by fertilizer run off, which is destroying marine wild life. It could also reduce atmospheric carbon and hopefully reverse climate change
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Seaweed, such as kelp, grows at an astronomical rate. This could be the most sustainable and helpful crop ever.

So sea vegetables are highly nutritious and environmentally helpful but the real question is how to make them appeal to the North American palate?

I hear that some dulce varieties taste like bacon…

Reference:

http://ow.ly/XccCC 

Is Your Heartburn Actually Eosinophilic Esophagitis?

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Pain behind the sternum associated with the sensation of food getting stuck could be eosinophilic esophagitis.
Pain behind the sternum associated with the sensation of food getting stuck could be eosinophilic esophagitis.

You probably haven’t heard of eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) unless you or someone you know has it.  A decade ago it was considered fairly rare by the medical community but this condition is rapidly increasing in incidence.  It used to be mainly a problem diagnosed in children but now it is more commonly being found in adults.

 

EE occurs when eosinophils (a white blood cell, part of the immune system) infiltrates the esophagus due to food and environmental allergies.  When the eosinophils detect an ‘intruder’ (the allergen) they release substances that ultimately cause tissue swelling which leads to compression of the tube.  The swelling comes and goes depending on the exposure to allergens.  During an acute reaction, food that is being consumed may feel like it can’t go down (called dysphagia) and in extreme cases it can become impacted.   Repeated cycles of this event cause the esophagus to stiffen and may create strictures and thickenings, known as Schatzki rings.

 

Esophageal pain associated with food consumption is often reflux related and so many people assume they have heartburn when they have pain behind their sternum.  However, if this pain is also associated with the sensation that food is getting stuck part way down, this is a signal that the problem may be EE.  EE can only be diagnosed by a gastroenterologist who will perform an endoscopy with tissue biopsy.  The tissue will be observed under microscope to confirm abnormal eosinophil concentration.

 

Eosinophilic esophagitis is of particular interest to me because I was diagnosed with it in 2014. Looking back, I can remember the first time it felt like I couldn’t swallow something I ate.  It was ages ago and it didn’t happen again for years so of course I didn’t even give it a second thought.  But over time, I had these episodes more and more frequently and more and more intensely until I had a very intense lengthy episode of impacted food that motivated me to go for a diagnosis.

 

Eosinophilic esophagitis is considered chronic, incurable, progressive and is expected to relapse and remit.  The conventional treatment is palliative and can have undesirable side effects.

 

Naturally, I have found better natural treatments!

 

Identifying and avoiding food intolerances has been so helpful.  I went from having 2-3 episodes per week to 1 every 3 months – and those I could trace to accidental or purposeful exposures to specific foods.

 

Identifying and avoiding or desensitizing environmental allergies is another component of the treatment strategy.  Some EE sufferers only experience episodes during their hay-fever season.  That was not my case, but my worst episodes have occurred during grass season, which is my allergen.  Retraining the immune system to not attack these pollens has brought further improvement.

 

Helping the lymphatic system to drain efficiently with detoxifying remedies has also helped both prophylactically and during acute episodes.

 

If you have chronic heartburn, you may have eosinophilic esophagitis.  This condition irreversibly damages your esophagus so early detection is desirable.  Natural treatments can substantially improve your quality of life and reduce the progression of the condition.

 

Focus on Fiber Part 3 Fiber Keeps Our Immune System Healthy

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Fiber is a feast for our good bacteria, which trains our immune system to be smart and strong.
Fiber is a feast for our good bacteria, which trains our immune system to be smart and strong.

Over the pastfew weeks, I have written about two important roles that fiber plays in our health: improving our blood sugar and weight management, and regulating cholesterol.

Another crucial role of dietary fiber is feeding and optimizing our microbiome (gut bugs) in order to keep our immune system healthy and primed for action against pathogens and cancer cells.

When undigested fiber arrives in our colon, our microbiome (gut bugs) digest it. They produce a multitude of products that are essential to our health especially to the immune cells in the digestive tract.

Our digestive tract contains 70% of our immune cells! These cells are called gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). This tissue must learn to differentiate nutrients from pathogens – what to let in and what to keep out.

How the immune cells and microbiome interact to stimulate immune health is not exactly known. Research shows in animal models that immune information molecules called cytokines are higher after a high fiber meal. One thing we know is that the microbiome excretes a short chain fatty acid called butyrate that our cells use as fuel. This fuel helps the cells produce more mucous which is a barrier to bacteria infiltration. The fuel probably also allows the tract to constantly maintain the tight barrier to intruders.  Ultimately, our system is better at fighting infections but also at recognizing our own cells and not evolving into auto-immune problems or allergies.  Our immune system also remains sharp so that it can recognize cancer cells and eradicate them before they take hold.

With multiple courses of antibiotics and a low fiber diet – many of us have a less than optimal microbiome – diversity is critical. The best way to improve this situation is to eat more gut bug food – fiber!

We should be aiming at getting a minimum of 25 – 38 grams of fiber and the average Canadian consumes only 15 grams. Healthy indigenous diets may have 70 grams of fiber!

How do you get more fiber?

Eat a wide variety of vegetables, beans, fruits, whole grains and nuts and seeds.

If you want to add fiber to your diet in the form of supplements (powders, capsules), here are some ideas:
– Psyllium husk or seeds – I like this source because it’s inexpensive
– Glucomannan from konjac root
– Beta glucan from a variety of sources including oats – It is also being studied for immune modulating effects (similar to medicinal mushrooms)
– Pectin