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purification program

Food Intolerance vs. Food Allergy

    

Is food intolerance the same as a food allergy?
A food allergy is when the body mistakes an ingredient in food (usually a protein) as harmful and creates antibodies to fight it. The allergy develops when the antibodies are battling the “invading” food (protein).  The severity of allergies may vary but they always carry the risk of anaphylactic shock. For this reason, foods you are allergic to must be avoided for life. The most common food allergies are peanuts, tree nuts (such as walnuts, pecans and almonds), fish and shellfish, soy and wheat. If you are an adult, you may have discovered the allergy by accident and it most likely involved a visit to your local emergency room.
A food intolerance often turns up later in life. People are frequently surprised to discover they are lactose intolerant later in life.   The truth is, you most likely had some form of food intolerance when younger, but your body compensated for it.
One of the first symptoms of a food intolerance is your energy level.  


How often do you feel tired during the day? This one symptom alone could be a food intolerance reaction. Gas, diarrhea, bloating and headaches can all be food intolerance reactions. And because reactions can occur up to 48 hours after eating, you may not make the connection. Instead, most seek relief from symptoms by using over-the-counter medications.
Due to the pervasive low quality S.A.D (Standard American Diet) in our country, the incidence of food intolerances is on the rise.  


Many digestive problems are never fully diagnosed, and food intolerance can often be the cause.  More than 15% of Americans are now thought of to be gluten intolerant and an estimated 75% of Americans are lactose intolerant.
So how can you know for sure?
It’s called an elimination diet and more and more individuals are finding this to be a critical step in solving health issues.  Elimination diets are amazingly effective in the case of food intolerance, which irritates your digestive system or when you are unable to properly digest or break down food.
It’s important to note that food intolerance reactions tend to be activated when you eat the same foods over and over – and triggered by stress to your digestive system. Examples include a course of antibiotics to treat an infection, birth of a child, moving, finding a new job, surgery and frequent low blood sugar (i.e. letting several hours pass by without eating). These are all stresses that can cause the digestive barrier to break down and expose your immune system to commonly eaten proteins in foods.
In the past, we ate by season and did not have access to the same foods all year long, so these reactions would go away. Today, we can eat the same foods all year long, meaning we can develop reactions to the foods we eat most commonly and the reactions won’t go away.
Put simply, if you identify which foods your digestive system has difficulty tolerating, you can avoid them for a period of time and the reaction will typically go away. Unfortunately, most of us are unaware of food intolerance reactions because they become so common.
In my practice, there is a particular test I use to pinpoints these reactions.  Once informed and assessed, we work together to create a plan to eliminate these foods comfortably from your diet for a period of time. During that process, your body will reset itself.   Energy is restored, mental clarity returns and often, you notice that you’re FINALLY able to lose stubborn weight.  Yes, many use this test to lose weight, and many use it to correct a hormonal imbalance.  It is one of the best solutions to the most common ailments.  


If you are curious to learn more, make an appointment by contacting Debi Farley at 804.288.3927.

With so many detox programs, how do you choose what’s right for you?

There are many different types and ways of doing a detoxification program. I don’t really want to spend a lot of time going into a lot of detail about each of these. Instead I’m going to briefly describe them. If anyone has questions about any of these or any other type of cleanse, please comment and I will be sure to get back to you.

Many of you have heard of various types of programs for detoxification. There are colon cleanses, liver cleanses, gallbladder cleanse, Candida cleanses, and parasite cleanses. Many of these involve tablets, pills, and/or herbs. There are usually no dietary suggestions to go along with most of these types of programs.

Another type of detoxification is to use liquids only such as a juice feast, fasting with water or some other type of liquid, and using meal replacement shakes. All of these involve no food for a certain period of time. Then gradually adding food back in when you have completed the fast or feast.

The final and most gentle way to detoxify is by using your food choices to detoxify. This may involve eliminating animal products, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, certain grains, or other food categories that could be creating inflammation in the body. In can also include transitioning into a raw food lifestyle which is eating mainly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

Most people when doing a detox also start to incorporate more local, organic, chemical and hormone free products into the diet. Using foods that are either organic, or locally grown without chemicals and that are not processed (come in a box or a can) can greatly enhance the benefits and help to detoxify the body.

As I’ve already discussed my personal favorite and the way I cleanse is to do a juicefeast. This is different than a fast as I’m drinking 1 gallon of freshly juiced vegetables and fruits daily. Most of them are green vegetable juices.

The 21 day program, mentioned before, is in my experience the most successful in restarting the body with out any deprivation of food. It is a gentle program that does not create a lot of side effects and it sets you up for creating a healthy lifestyle around food and the choices you make. I use this program for those wishing to jumpstart into a healthy more whole food based lifestyle in my SAD2FAB program.

All of these types of cleanses may create results; however, they are generally not long lasting. If you’ve eliminated food all together and weight loss was your goal you will more than likely gain back at least 5 lbs. The key to doing a successful detoxification program is to develop and maintain a lifestyle that will support the work you jut completed. This can be hard in a society that bases social activity on food and I will discuss this more in-depth later.

Benefits of a Detoxification Program

The benefits of doing a detoxification or what I like to also call a restart or reset to the body is that you are first of all giving your body a rest from all of the work that it has been doing to keep the body able to perform. Other benefits that can be seen are going to be based on the type of program that you choose the length of the program, and whether or not you are following a nutrition plan that has eliminated any foods that may or may not be causing problems in the body.

In my practice and in my personal experience I’ve probably done just about every detoxification program out there. I’ve completed and lead programs where I’ve not felt any differently some that ended with me feeling fantastic. A couple of years ago I did a 92 day juicefeast. During this program I totally reset my metabolism, I lost weight and kept most of it off, my skin became clearer and more supple, some of my fine lines that are starting to come out went away, my eyes were brighter, my mind clearer, and my energy was better than it was when I was in my 20’s. Juicing has quickly become my favorite way of detoxifying and I use it regularly to reset and recharge. I also coach people who wish to do juicing as a way to reset their system.

During the past five years, I’ve led over 50 people either individually or in a group through a 21 day purification program. Some of the benefits these participants have received include improved mental clarity, improved libido, less headaches, and their sleep has improved. I’ve also had people lose between five and twenty- two pounds of weight, reverse health issues, come off of prescription medications, improve their sleep, resolve digestive issues, resolve fertility issues, and find out they had allergies to some foods that may have been causing them problems.

So you see there are many benefits to doing a detoxification program.

So why detox?

If our bodies were in optimal condition, we ate only unprocessed foods, and we’re exposed to thousands of toxins in the environment every day, we’d be in pretty good shape of handling daily cleansing; but that’s not the world we live in today.

There are over 80,000 synthetic chemicals registered in the United States alone. We are breathing, bathing, applying, and ingesting these chemicals daily. They are found in the food supply through the pesticides and herbicides that are put on the food crops, the genetic modification of the food supply and the preservatives, artificial flavorings and colorings in packaged and processed foods and drinks. They are also found in cosmetics, perfumes, colognes, aftershave, soaps, cleaning supplies, paint, new carpet, and new furniture. These chemicals are in the prescriptions and most nutritional supplements that we are taking. And finally they are in our water and our air supply (think pollution).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that there are hundreds of these chemicals present in our bodies. I believe I read somewhere that we are holding approximately 15 pounds of toxins in our bodies that are not related to the natural metabolic processes that take place daily.

In addition research has also shown that these chemicals can interrupt our immune system creating stuffy head, allergies, and other autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, and Fibromyalgia. They also interrupt the endocrine and reproductive systems which can lead to hormonal imbalances, diabetes, thyroid imbalances, fertility, and low libido. They can create digestion and other gastrointestinal problems, food cravings, weight gain, and reduced mental clarity.

Curious to know the amount of toxins your body is currently processing and if you have a high toxic load? Visit my website https://acupunctureworksllclynchburg.com/ to take a free TOXICITY test!

5 Week Detox Workshop Starts September 29th
(Hurry registration closes September 21st)

Back on Line

Hi everyone

I hope everyone has had a nice summer. My sincere apologies for abandoning you during this time frame. I’ve been very busy planning new programs and learning more great information to share with you.

One of the things I would like to share with you today is a trip that I recently took to Palmyra Wisconsin. You might ask why would I go there? As you may or may not know I carry the Standard Process and Mediherb lines of nutritional supplements. I had the high honor along with 99 other acupuncturists to be invited for a visit to the farm and the factory as well as to attend a weekend seminar. I must tell you I was absolutely blown away by what I saw. I was already familiar with the fact that Standard Process grows most of their own ingredients to go into their nutritional supplements on a certified organic farm. I also knew they had very high quality control and manufacturing standards but to see that all in person was amazing. I bring this up not as a selling tool for Standard Process but to give you some insight as to what prompted my upcoming series of posts on Detoxification.

At the end of September I will be starting my Fall Detoxification class which follows the Standard Process Purification Program. I felt this would be a great opportunity to inform everyone as to my thoughts on detoxification. What is the TCM belief, why do we need to detox, how often, the different kinds of detoxes, detox symptoms, and how to avoid or reduce detox symptoms. I will also discuss other things that can help with your detox such as dry skin brushing, enemas, colonics, sauna’s, herbal teas, etc..

So stay tuned and let me know if you have any questions about detoxification that you would like to have answered.
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