Quick heads up that at on Wednesday July 1st I will be giving a free evening webinar on the Iron, the Goldilocks Mineral.
Iron isn’t immediately as sexy or exciting as its cousin magnesium, but I can reassure you that by understanding the spectrum of iron levels within the body using a reliable blood test that is cheap, you can create huge changes very easily.
Remember iron deficiency (usually without anaemia) is one possible cause of:
- Chronic pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Depression/anxiety,
- Fatigue
- Restless leg syndrome
- Brain fog
Join me for an hour on Wednesday July 1st 8-9 PM
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/iron-the-goldilocks-mineral-tickets-1990879768982?aff=oddtdtcreator
- Iron deficiency without anaemia is very common and very commonly underdiagnosed (50% of teenage girls are iron deficient)
- The key test for iron reserves, available for only £39 via www.optimaltesting.co.uk and why the NHS misses the diagnosis
- The difference between standard NHS iron prescription and IN Health Iron Bisglycinate & why iron bisglycinate, even with 64% less iron, will give double the iron into the blood
- Plant based non-heme iron vs. meat heme iron
- Iron overload – Commonly underdiagnosed, and easy to fix
A few weeks ago we talked about the histamine fibromyalgia link and, indeed, the gut everything link.
This week I want to share with you some fascinating research which once again suggests that excess histamine via low DAO (the enzyme that breaks down histamine in the gut and blood), may be responsible for a significant proportion of people with mysterious gut symptoms, that also have persistent headaches, back pain (remember excess histamine is linked to fibromyalgia as we discussed a few weeks ago – this is important – we are not doing this for the gut per se, we are doing it because HISTAMINE is an excitatory neuro-transmitter, and excess level lead to exaggeration and persistent clinical symptoms you would normally expect to improve….but do not.
Worth a re-read, click it 👇
Remember, when it comes to gut symptoms, as Chiropractors, we’re not specifically interested in their gut per se.
It’s really more like a window into the state of their inflammatory system and whether or not the gut may be the driver of a sustained low-grade inflammatory response that is going to hamper our response to care.
When it comes to the immune system within the gut developing a sustained response. You must always consider initially whether or not there is a food intolerance present that is the most obvious trigger.
This is important because inflammation locally in the gut driven by food intolerance, will undermine any therapeutic attempts at other intervention because inflammation locally disturbs the gut microbiome, creates leaky gut and creates a permanent vicious cycle.
But after a 2-week reset diet, usually gluten and dairy, which is the low-hanging fruit as it is so common, then we might attempt to look at the other ways the gut can be irritated.
If you cannot breakdown the sugar lactose (found in dairy), with lactASE, then you are lactose intolerant.
Note: I frequently find this is secondary to gluten intolerance as the lactose enzyme is made in the villi, damaged by the inflammation of gluten intolerance.
Or you cannot absorb FRUTOSE, leading to fructose intolerance.
Again, this is really symptomatic of underlaying poor gut health.
Regardless, messing around with low fructose diets, frankly, is a real pain I can do without.
So, this research really caught my eye, as it looked 439 patients with abdominal pain.
21% had lactose intolerance, 7% has fructose intolerance, but 22% had low DAO, meaning, they have histamine intolerance/overload.
This gives us an easy window into the patient’s immune system and a way to get inflammation down and care to work as expected.
Three things to consider with diet and histamine:
- Remove high histamine foods
- Avoid histamine “liberators”
- Avoid alcohol which contains histamine but also blocks DAO
High histamine foods (note this varies in opinion between sources):
- Aged cheeses
- Alcoholic beverages of any kind (especially red wine)
- Avocado
- Dried fruits
- Eggplant
- Fermented or aged meats, including salami, sausages, and pepperoni
- Fermented beverages like kombucha and water kefir
- Fermented dairy products (yogurt, kefir, sour cream, buttermilk, cottage, and ricotta cheese)
- Fermented or pickled vegetables (kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, natto)
- Fish and seafood, particularly tuna or mackerel, especially if left over, smoked, salted, or canned, or not gutted and frozen immediately after harvest
- Soy sauce, tamari, coconut aminos, and liquid aminos
- Spinach
- Leftovers or unfresh food
- Tea (black, green, white, or yerba mate tea)
- Tomatoes
- Vinegars, including apple cider, rice wine, and balsamic
- Yeast products
We can add in DAO and also Methyl B Hero the two ways we break down histamine, outside the cell and inside the cell respectively.
Trial this for 2-4 weeks, and see what you get in terms of reducing inflammation and overall symptom picture, so your care works like you know it should.
Key indicator for HISTAMINE gut issues, is the symptoms are not predictable.
It is all a bit random and lots of other symptoms are also present:
Use those as a guide, especially skin stuff, weird heart, and random, unpredictable gut symptoms.