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Tracking IBS Symptoms is the First Step in Healing

4/1/2020

As many as 13-20% of Canadians are currently experiencing Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS, and the lifetime risk for a Canadian to develop the condition is a significant 30%. This means that you or someone you love will experience IBS.

IBS is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder that comes with a range of digestive symptoms like bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, and diarrhea. There aren’t any medical tests that can give you a definitive diagnosis, but it’s the most commonly diagnosed gastrointestinal condition.

IBS can be broken down into:
- IBS-D is when you mainly experience watery stools in the form of diarrhea
- IBS-C means you primarily have hard, difficult to pass stools, or constipation
- IBS-M means you fluctuate between diarrhea and constipation, even during the same bowel movement

Tracking your symptoms IBS can feel nebulous because it’s hard to know where your symptoms are coming from and why. It can be challenging to get control over the situation and feel like you’re able to help yourself. This is why tracking your symptoms and other variables are a crucial first step in understanding what is and isn’t working for you. With this information you can start the healing process.

The idea is to monitor your symptoms, their frequency, and severity. In a dedicated journal create a chart and monitor:
- Symptoms like bloating, abdominal pain, flatulence, belching, feelings of urgency, acid reflux, fatigue, depression, brain fog, plus anything else unique to you
- Frequency of symptoms such as daily, almond daily, 3-4 times per week, 1-2 times per week, or rarely
- Severity of symptoms like mild, moderate, and severe, or giving them a score out of 10.
- You should also keep track of the frequency, form and consistency of your bowel movements. Consulting a Bristol Stool Chart gives you a framework to reference

It would also be wise to journal what you’re eating at every meal, your fluid intake, exercise, stress levels, as well as what’s fueling or alleviating your stress. Over time you will start to see patterns, and things you can do to start feeling better.

One final consideration when you’re tracking all this information is the idea of your personal tolerance threshold. Your symptoms may only appear once you exceed your personal tolerance threshold for the day. An example of this is you may not get symptoms with a quarter of an avocado per day, but half an avocado has you doubled over in pain. A further example is that you might eat a quarter of an avocado one day, but also eat garlic that day (or even the next day) which will push you over your personal threshold if garlic can also be problematic for you. If you didn’t know avocado was giving you symptoms, you risk assuming just garlic is the problem.

Your personal tolerance threshold for the day is a dose dependent reaction that adds up over time. This is why food reintroductions always start with a bite one day, then a larger chunk the next, until you have slowly built up to a full serving size.

It’s common to feel you have little to no control when you’re experiencing IBS. Tracking your symptoms, the food you're eating, your stress levels, and other variables you feel might be contributing is a good way to empower yourself in the healing process.

Artichoke is a Liver Friendly Superfood

3/25/2020

A staple of the Mediterranean diet, the artichoke is a liver supportive powerhouse! The artichoke is easy to miss as you browse the grocery store and it might take some special preparation if you manage to find a fresh one, but it’s worth it!

Artichoke protects the liver from damage by:
- Encouraging the production of bile which carries the waste from detoxification away from the liver and into the digestive tract to be excreted;
- Containing high levels of antioxidants which neutralize free radicals in the intermediary phase of detoxification;
- Reducing the amount of fat that accumulates on the liver;
- Providing fibre which improves gut motility and carries bile out of the body.

Artichoke is a member of the same plant family as milk thistle, which you may have seen in the health food store as a liver supportive supplement. They both contain silymarin, an antioxidant that has shown to be liver protective. The advantage with artichoke is that you get the benefits in food form! It’s not just the silymarin that makes us love artichokes for our liver. They’re also:

- Full of choline, a nutrient that prevents fat depositing on the liver;
- Loaded with folate, a vitamin involved in your body's ability to create and use the liver protective nutrient choline;
- Rich in the B-complex group of vitamins such as vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) -- all needed in the first phase of liver detoxification;
- Loaded with vitamin C, an antioxidant used to neutralize the harmful and inflammatory free radicals of the first phase liver of detoxification;
- Full of further antioxidants such as caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and of course silymarin;
- Rich in the bitter cynarin which stimulates the liver to produce bile, as well as encouraging the liver to transport bile to the gallbladder. When these things don’t happen the liver is at a greater risk of damage.

When we look at artichoke holistically, it’s nutrients lower cholesterol production while also increasing the excretion of cholesterol into bile. This helps lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides while promoting HDL as the liver is able to function more efficiently.

How to eat artichokes
Fresh artichokes aren’t common in the grocery store, but if you’re lucky enough to find one, it can be steamed, boiled, roasted or sautéed. Both the leaves and the hearts can be eaten, but take special preparation. You’re most likely to find shelf stable artichokes pickled in jars, which are a great addition to a salad, pizza or pasta dish.

Reduce Your Stress Levels to Protect Yourself from Covid-19

3/21/2020

As you’re well aware, we’re facing unprecedented times as we face Covid-19, it’s a global pandemic that we must fight locally. You of course already know and are practicing the basics so we won’t go into them in depth, but we’d be remiss to not touch on them!

- Wash your hands regularly
- Avoid touching your face
- Clean regularly, including door knobs and phones
- Maintain social distance, and self isolate

But no matter how hard you work at preventing your exposure, if you’re stressed you’re going to diminish your immunity.

When we’re under chronic or long term stress we spend too much time in “fight or flight” mode, regulated by the sympathetic nervous system. This part of the nervous system prepares you to escape from danger and / or fight, whether that’s against a physical or a mental threat. This chronic stress means we’re not spending enough time in “rest and digest” mode, regulated by the parasympathetic nervous system.

These two nervous systems regulate our immune system! When we’re under chronic stress, and our stress hormone cortisol is always elevated, our immune system can be suppressed. This makes you more susceptible to pathogens like Covid-19.

If you haven’t experienced a raise in your stress levels, please share your secrets! For the rest of you, make it your top priority to build your mental resilience:
- Choose a reputable news source, and watch no more than one daily update
- Step away from the social media platforms, or unfollow accounts that are raising your anxiety levels
- Prioritize sleep at all costs. We have lots of tips in this article.
- Meditate. It doesn’t need to be fancy, or done cross legged on the floor, just find moments to breathe deeply and calm your nervous system. If you need some structure why not try 5 minutes on the hour every hour!
- Make it a priority to connect with friends over Facetime/Skype. Even though we need to distance ourselves from each other, we still need social connection
- Along the same lines, phone, don’t text. Make a point to build connections with people you can’t see face to face right now
- Take a mental health day from work if it’s all getting too much, you have good reason to need one
- Put your phone down and read a book
- Stay well hydrated. Take your body weight in pounds, divide by two and drink the resulting number of water in ounces per day
- Avoid refined sugar and alcohol that negatively affect your immune system
- Get daily movement, from going for a walk or bike ride, to following an online yoga class, or practicing push ups.

Truehope’s OLE (Olive Leaf Extract) and Nascent Iodine are good supplemental additions too. OLE is a proven antimicrobial and powerful way to strengthen your immune system. It has 4 times the antioxidant capacity of Vitamin C, so is a worthy addition! Nascent Iodine is essential for fighting off infections, as well as for proper immune system functioning.

Working to spend more time in “rest and digest”, will not only make your immune system more resilient, reduce inflammation and reduce your risk of most chronic diseases, but it can also reduce your chance of catching and reducing the severity of COVID-19.

The whole Truehope team wishes you health and safety as we navigate these times.

The Nutrients You Need to Support Detoxification

3/11/2020

In our last article we touched on the many functions the liver plays in our health. We talked about reducing or eliminating the most damaging things to the liver first, such as alcohol and medications like acetaminophen.

Today we’re going to talk about specific nutrients needed to support the detoxification role of the liver. The liver has two main phases of detoxification when substances are processed in preparation for elimination from the body. These substances come in two forms. The first form is as endotoxins which are produced in our bodies as byproducts of metabolism. The second form is as exotoxins, like drugs (over-the-counter, prescription and recreational), herbicides, pesticides, food additives, microbes, and pollution.

In a healthy liver, the first phase of detoxification takes fat soluble toxins and transforms them into intermediary substances. To do this it needs:

- Vitamin B2 -- found in beef, fortified tofu, milk, salmon, and mushrooms.
- Vitamin B3 (niacin) -- found in tuna, chicken, pork, mushrooms, and brown rice.
- Vitamin B6 -- found in salmon, fortified tofu, chicken, beef, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Folic acid -- found in edamame, lentils, asparagus, and dark, leafy greens.
- Vitamin B12 -- found in shellfish, liver, mackerel, fortified food products, and dairy.
- Glutathione production, which can be increased by eating foods such as spinach, avocados, and asparagus, as well as sulphur, selenium, and vitamin C rich foods.
- Branch chain amino acids -- found in most protein rich foods. (However, vegans will need to work harder to get a full complement of BCAAs.) Truehope Freeminos is an excellent supplement for everyone to help cover these bases.
- Phospholipids -- found in soy lecithin, milk, chicken eggs, fish eggs, liver, cabbage, and carrots.

The results of the first phase of detoxification contain harmful free radicals, but are neutralized by antioxidants. It’s important to get enough of these antioxidants in your diet, or the intermediaries remain in their harmful state and the next phase of detoxification cannot happen effectively. Find these antioxidants in:

- Preformed vitamin A -- found in animal sources like meat, fish, and diary, or beta-carotene found in plant sources like sweet potato, carrots, and butternut squash.
- CoQ10 -- found most richly in organ meats such as heart and liver but also in small amounts in soybeans.
- Vitamin C -- found in fresh and raw kiwi, bell peppers, strawberries, oranges, and broccoli.
- Vitamin E -- found in sunflower seeds, almonds, avocadoes, spinach, and butternut squash.
- Selenium -- found in brazil nuts, tuna, and oysters, pork, and beef.
- Copper -- found in organ meats, leaf greens, nuts, seeds, and beans. Bioflavanoids -- found in vitamin C rich foods. Zinc -- found in oysters, beef, chicken, tofu, and hemp seeds.
- Manganese -- found in mussels, wheat germ, firm tofu, and sweet potatoes.

In a healthy liver, the second phase of detoxification turns the intermediary substances that have been neutralized by antioxidants into water-soluble compounds that can be excreted from the body. To do this, the liver needs the amino acids glycine, taurine, glutamine, cysteine, and methionine -- all found in abundance in Truehope Freeminos, a supplement we recommend to ensure efficient phase 2 detoxification. From here, what is left is eliminated through the kidneys as urine, through the skin as sweat, and through the intestines as bile.

When the liver isn’t healthy, both endotoxins and exotoxins leave the liver without being properly detoxified and are stored in fat tissue, the brain, and the nervous system, with the potential to cause long term health issues.

The key to supporting your liver nutritionally is eating a wide variety of nutrient dense vegetables, fruits, and protein rich foods, as well as supplements to ensure the liver has the ingredients it needs to function at full capacity.

Author

We want to provide nothing but the highest quality information and advice for our followers to improve their health, which is why at Truehope Canada, we're happy to say our writer is a Certified Life Coach and Registered Holistic Nutritionist.
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