Is Your Diet Causing Health Problems?

By Alan S. Weiss, MD

Annapolis Integrative Medicine

. http://www.annapolisintegrativemedicine.com/

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Is Your Diet Causing Health Problems?

Many of our problems begin in the gut and with our diet.

A few years ago a patient was diagnosed with gluten intolerance and celiac disease, where the body develops an intense immune reaction to eating the gluten protein that is present in wheat, other grains, and many foods that contain gluten.

As a high school freshman with some basketball talent he was tall enough and talented enough to make the varsity team and play forward. However after his freshman year he stopped growing and was always pale and tired. He never grew taller and was played point guard after that, typically a position for shorter players. And he spent his next years being tired, losing his hair, and struggling to get through his days

He was well into his 50's when he was finally diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and it was his wife's diligent research that pointed him in this direction not his physician. And it changed his life, giving him back energy, vitality, well being and even the hair he had been losing.

It makes no sense to think that the food we eat may not be affecting us negatively. The food we have available in terms of processed foods, sugar, genetically modified foods, and altered grains are not the foods that our ancestors ate and that our bodies are designed to process and incorporate.

Numerous patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, psychiatric disorders, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome and a multitude of other issues end up feeling much or completely better when their food allergies and intolerances are investigated.

There is a problem that has been known for ages by alternative medical practitioners as leaky gut. This diagnosis has long been scorned by traditional physicians. This is a disorder whereby the integrity of the gut lining is compromised and molecules cross the gut membrane that should not and provoke an immune reaction. People start reacting to foods they are most exposed to, and begin to have joint pain, fatigue, rash, abdominal pain, weight gain, and generalized inflammation.

Well guess what? This is now known as “intestinal hyperpermeability” in the conventional medical literature. It can be treated with food restriction, digestive enzymes, and treatments to heal bacterial and yeast overgrowth of the gut and repair of the gut lining.

So if you have seemingly undiagnosable medical issues, maybe you should consider taking a look at your gut and diet.