Did you know the dumping ground for the organs tends to be in the lower limb? This shows particularly in the knees and hips. The majority of clients that walk through the door of my studios exhibit painful hips and knees caused by inflammation. This usually happens in conjunction with the gut wall (leaky gut). We cannot separate the systems of the body. Everything is linked and always has been. Our food sources are poor and our soil is depleted. The food giants know it, yet they continue to sell poor quality produce which continues to feed dysfunctional health of the body and mind. This in turn is high profit for pharmaceutical companies. The picture below says it all.

Speak to your grandparents and ask them what did people die of and they will say old age. Speak to anyone now and ask them if they know someone who died and if so, what did they die of? They will likely say cancer, diabetes, dementia, alzheimers, dementia, parkinsons and the list goes on.

Inflammation is now medically recognised as the start of most medical conditions. Functional medicine doctors such as Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Chattergee, plus many other leading speakers and authors are pioneering the way forward with better choices and gut health to prevent inflammation even starting. So how did all this inflammation come about? Are we to partly to blame in our food and lifestyle choices?

Drugs only MASKS inflammation, they do not correct the source. Many pain meds also cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies. This side effect can prevent long term healing. For example, NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can cause folic acid and vitamin C deficiency. Both of these vitamins are crucial for the body to be able to repair damaged cartilage, joints, tendons, and ligaments. See the diagram below:

Drug-Induced-Nutritional-Deficiencies

Forms of inflammation that can benefit with diet changes:

· Osteoarthritis

· Rheumatoid arthritis

· Ankylosing spondylitis

· Lupus

· Spondyloarthritis

· Psoriatic

· Reactive arthritis

· Fibromyalgia

· Scleroderma

· Myofascitis

· Dermatomyositis

Common Foods Associated with Joint Pain, Inflammation and Arthritis

· Grain (all grains including wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn, rice, millet, sorghum, etc)

· Lectins

· Nightshades (potato, eggplant, tomato, peppers, tobacco)

· Hydrogenated Fats (hardly a food, but added to a lot of processed food items)

· Sugar (in all processed forms)

· Coffee and Tea

· Vegetable oils

· Soy

· Peanuts

Grain consumption started with bread thousands of years ago and this was handmade without the use of machines. Significant amounts of scientific research suggest that originally most civilisations actually survived on animal meats along with nuts, seeds and vegetables; bread came later. Most of the animals that we ate were herbivores such as deer. The meat had a condensed nutritional value equalling to one pound of meat to several pounds of vegetables. Such a dense nutritious diet sustained us in winter months.

We then began to farm and there came a rise to a progressive increase in highly refined grains.

Now after 130 years of consuming highly processed grains in the forms of bread, pastries and cereals, chronic disease is rampant. The greatest prevalence is in England with thematic disease and we have the highest consumption of white flour, white sugar and tea per capita plus the United States runs a strong second.

Phytic acid is in the bran of all grains and this inhibits the absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc. The inhibitors can neutralise our own digestive enzymes, resulting in digestive disorders. Complex sugars responsible for intestinal gas are also broken down during sprouting and a portion of starch in grain is transformed into sugar.

For those of us who can tolerate gluten, whole grain cereals and bread are nutritious and provide fibre which aids in detoxification. But processed wheat (which is just bleached white flour) is nutritionally deficient. Levels of zinc, chromium, manganese, iron and vitamin E are all reduced in processed flour, compared to whole grains. Interestingly, some of the staving nations, while in severe famine declined US grains as they did little to help the health of the people.

Our gut and other organs are linked to our brain. So, if you have suffered from any of the following conditions you must look at your inflammation and grain brain as one of its major contributors to the following:

· Chronic headaches

· Migraines

· Depression

· Diabetes

· Epilepsy

· Focus and concentration problems

· Insomnia

· Disease associated with inflammation

· Intestinal problems like celiac, IBS and gluten sensitivity

· memory probes that are a pre cursor to Alzheimers

· Overweight and obesity

· Tourette’s

· ADHD

· Anxiety and chronic stress

· Plus many more

“If you choose to alter your dependency cycle the choice is yours and therefore the power becomes yours”. Emma Lane

Bibliography

‘Grain Brain’ – Dr.David Perlmutter

‘Eat, move and be healthy’ – Paul Chek