Nutritional Medicine - A Health Model That Makes Sense
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Holistic doctors are now using a brand-new medical specialty called Nutritional Medicine to explain how to deal with health issues. Numerous publications created by specialists in nutritional medicine explain the causes of degenerative disorders as well as provide logical, step-by-step treatments for them using diet and supplements.
The Nutritional Medicine health concept has been adopted by thousands of people, and as a result, they are experiencing health and energy. The information we have learned from these doctors is what we will share with you in the following pages. If the information makes sense to you, you will be encouraged to explore the options we have for resolving your own health issues.
Nutritional Medicine
The following is supported by the principles of nutritional medicine:
1.)Using probiotics and enzymes to improve food and absorption is method one; 2.)improved dietary intake via nutrient-rich food supplements and 3.)enhanced antioxidant protection from entire food sources against oxidative stress and free radical damage.
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Many chronic degenerative illnesses have been treated by thousands of people using this health approach. The scientific justifications for this particular health model and the supplements utilized are also provided in several research and publications authored by physicians who practice nutritional medicine.
A relatively significant number of complementary, allopathic, and naturopathic physicians practice Nutritional Medicine today.
Nutritional medicine: What Is It?
The majority of degenerative illnesses, according to nutritionists, are caused by malfunctions in the liver's and digestive system's disposal mechanisms. In other words, issues with the digestive and liver detoxification systems and their effects on the immune, neurological, and endocrine systems can all be directly linked to sickness. Therefore, the body is given the chance to correct many degenerative disorders when the health of the digestive and liver detoxification systems is addressed. A doctor who practises nutritional medicine will initially advise addressing the health of the gastrointestinal system, even if the degenerative condition is identified as lupus, diabetes, eczema, etc. The liver's detoxification system should be supported and strengthened after the GI tract has returned to normal.
Skinny Girl Syndrome: Why It's Time to Talk About the Risks
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Many of us have heard from folk medicine practitioners a lot over the years that "Stomach problems are the cause of all ills" or "Death begins in the colon," but thanks to the work of nutritional medicine doctors, we now have hundreds of clinical studies and scientific research that back up these claims.
No matter what the name of the degenerative condition is, Jeffrey Anderson, M.D. explains why you should focus on the health of the gastrointestinal tract first in an article titled "How Problems with Digestion Can Cause Illness Anywhere." The condition of the digestive tract has an impact on the entire system, according to new information on the dynamics of the body, he says (Nichols, et al., 1999, p.125).One of the main areas at which health is lost is the "...degradation of the gut environment. The same poisons linked to GI problems are now understood to regularly be absorbed into and disseminated throughout other bodily regions. They initially tax the liver and the immunological system. There will be a spillover if the liver becomes overworked, and some of the poisons will then reach other organs or tissues (p. 125).
"Frequently, a weak point in the system—an organ that could be located anywhere in the body—will take the brunt of the damage. The vulnerability could result from poor food, physical trauma, chemical exposure, or inheritance (p.125). For instance, "toxins that begin in the gut and circulate in the bloodstream may emerge as asthma or allergies if the sensitive system is the lungs" (p.125).
According to Len Saputo, M.D., who wrote the article "Harmful Flora," our entire immune system can fail in three different ways if the gastrointestinal tract is out of balance and the liver detoxification system is compromised. It can first become weak, with the end effect being an illness with immunological suppression (cancer and AIDS). Second, in conditions like asthma, eczema, migraine, and food allergies, it might overreact and become excessively sensitive to common stimuli. Third, a compromised immune system can result in auto immune reactions, in which our own tissues are targeted by antibodies, such as in lupus or rheumatoid arthritis (p.60).
Strategies for Reversing Degenerative Conditions Using Nutritional Medicine:
Doctors who practise nutritional medicine, such as Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, Dr. Len Saputo, and Dr. Jerry Stine, are of the opinion that clearing the body of any and all degenerative disorders is possible by cleansing and maintaining the GI tract and liver.
• Detoxifying the GI tract comes first.
• Next, activate the liver's detoxification system.
• Clean up the downstream effects, including any poisons found in the tissues and cells.
Doctors that practise nutritional medicine feel that you can't treat the upstream issues in the gut and liver before you can treat the downstream disorders (body symptoms like lupus, arthritis, dermatitis, etc). (p.132). The downstream effects frequently disappear after the liver and the antecedent problems are resolved.
Most Degenerative Conditions Can Be Treated with Nutritional Medicine. The 4Rs Approach:
1) Get rid of: Unusual quantities or types of intestinal microbes (parasites, bacterial pathogens, small intestinal overgrowth such as yeast, and food antigens). By fixing "leaky" intestinal membranes, this can be accomplished.
2) Replace: Supplements including friendly bacteria, digestive enzymes, and fiber help address and replace deficiencies in hydrochloric acid, enzymes, and fiber.
3) Utilizing full range friendly bacteria, restore: Symbiotic bacteria and GI bacteria (L. acidophilus, B. bifidus, L. planetarium, L. salivarius, L. bulgaricus, etc.).
4) Repair: Replace or supplement with the nutrients required to assist the mending of the intestinal lining, as well as with enough calories and fibre. Support the liver's detoxification process by using antioxidants and dietary supplements (pp. 181-182).
The nutritional supplements' quality makes a difference:
Numerous allopathic and naturopathic physicians who practise nutritional medicine now suggest promoting better nutrition, better digestion, and better defence against oxidative stress. To correct degenerative disorders, the majority of nutritionists advise taking common man-made supplements in their isolated, single, separated, or chemically synthesised forms, such as zinc, copper, vitamins B, C, and E, and beta carotene.
Single and artificially produced versions of vitamins and minerals shouldn't be consumed. For instance, organic nutritive groups known as vitamins are complex, interconnected, integrated, and united. They were created by nature to be an indistinguishable component of foods for the sake of human health. Trace elements, minerals, proteins, and other nutrients cannot be separated from vitamins in their capacity as active nutrients.
Chemists have made an effort to separate and identify some of these food complexes' constituent parts, classifying the elements that appeared to be "active" as vitamins or other nutrients. However, it is impossible for even the total of the parts to equal the whole. The only food that functions as a nutritious supply is the full food, intact and unchanged. The body does not recognize the isolated components as food. These separated compounds behave more like medicines when consumed in big doses, stimulating or suppressing biochemical processes than than supplying the cells with nutrients so they can carry out their essential jobs.
Vitamins from food sources are naturally enzymatically alive. Artificial, manufactured vitamins are decaying substances. Living biochemicals are necessary for human health. It just comes down to choosing between chemistry and biochemistry.
We think that when it comes to discussing why degenerative conditions arise, nutritional medicine doctors are "exactly on the money," but when it comes to the remedy, which is their supplement program, they primarily offer conventional man-made and chemically-manufactured supplements. Based on the belief that "Food is the best medicine," many of us prefer to take whole food supplements.
Trying to Find the Best Whole Food Supplements:
Man-made supplements can certainly be replaced with organic whole-food supplements, which are undoubtedly preferable. Because whole food supplements are made in its natural and complex form, they are much higher in quality and effectiveness for correcting degenerative disorders.
Because the human body is a marvelously built living creature with the capacity to grow, regulate, repair, and defend itself when given natural, high quality, full spectrum nutrients, whole food items are thought to be more effective.
The following health model is similar to the Nutritional Medicine health model, with the exception that we advise using wholefoods rather than manufactured supplements if your objective is to find a natural cure for your health issue:
1. Improved food digestion and absorption with the aid of probiotics and enzyme supplements.
2. Increased nutrition via dietary supplements (consuming nutrient-rich foods such as wheat grass, bee pollen, blue green algae...etc.).
3. Enhanced defense against oxidative stress (free radical damage) with whole food supplements (wheat sprouts, red algae, wheat grass..etc.).
By using whole food supplements, you can enhance the GI tract's environment, lessen the load of pollutants, and relieve liver stress. With fewer pollutants, the body doesn't need to maintain a constant state of high defense, and everything just starts to function more effectively. Dr. Jeffrey Anderson's famous quote, "You can't deal with the downstream problems (symptoms in the body) until you have addressed the upstream problem(s) (i.e., malfunctions in the gut)," perfectly sums up the idea of healing (p. 132).
References:
Trent W. Nichols and Nancy Faass (1999). Best Digestion. Avon Books, Inc., New York
