I have finally found the answers.
...the answers to these health questions that I have been wondering about for years and years:
What causes disease?
What is the healthiest way to eat?
What causes allergies?
The answers to all these questions can be summed up in one word: enzymes.
"What the heck does that mean?" you ask.
Well, I have recently learned that enzymes are the live part of food. They are the thing that give food life. And in turn, give us life. When our food is devoid of enzymes (cooked or processed), it is devoid of life, and when we eat it we are not given life. In fact, "life" is taken away from us. For example, eating a cooked carrot actually requires my body to hand over enzymes (that its cells were using) to digest and assimilate the carrot. Even though the carrot gives me glucose, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water, it is not giving me it's life -- its' enzymes -- because these have been killed by heating it.
The body requires enzymes (metabolic enzymes) to do it's daily work: creating new cells, repairing old cells, digesting food, packaging up and excreting waste, etc. When you don't have enough enzymes it has to "borrow" them from your mucus membranes, your bones, your organs, and other "less critical" parts. This leads to things like allergies (since your mucus membranes are compromised), osteoporosis (since your bones are compromised), and essentially all other diseases.
Eating Paleo I still got sick, and over the past 2 years developed eczema. I sensed that Paleo was close to how I should be eating, but not quite right -- something still felt awry.
Fortunately, I stumbled across a website about how to heal eczema naturally, and the author of it pointed me to the teachings of Dr. Joel Robbins (Medical Doctor, Naturopathic Doctor, and Chiropractor). His talk about enzymes was particularly helpful in understanding how the human body works and how to keep it healthy.
Enzymes - talk by Dr. Joel Robbins: https://youtu.be/tTO8hwTFn_M
Here are some of my notes from this talk:
NOTES
Our bodies are made up of 3 components:
1. Air
2. Water
3. Food
That's it! You have some control over these things.
There are 6 reasons we eat food. Your body is asking for these 6 nutrients:ENZYMES
Notes from Dr. Joel Robbins' talk you can listen to at: https://youtu.be/tTO8hwTFn_M
One thing that is always wrong if disease is present = LACK OF ENZYMES.
The body needs enzymes to function! Enzymes are the meaning of life - literally! These come from raw (live, unprocessed) foods. Raw food can be raw fruits, raw vegetables, raw meat, sprouted grains, or sprouted beans.
There are 2 kinds of enzymes:
If there are not enough enzymes the body will cut down on metabolic functions.
The more we do to food, the less value is left in it.
What's the deal with children getting leukemia? It has to do with white blood cells. White blood cells clean up the blood stream. People who ate primarily cooked foods had a higher than normal white blood cell count. If they left off of the cooked foods for 48 hours their white blood cell count would go back to normal. These kids (and their grandparents/parents) need to eat raw food!
If we put into the body food that is void of enzymes, and we have a body that is run down and depleted of enzymes, that food does not get thoroughly digested. Digestive enzymes are part of the enzyme bank account. If there are not enough enzymes to go around, not enough for the heart/lungs/etc. it is broken down but needs some more digesting! It's not in small enough molecules to be used so the white blood cells are increased to attack that foreign invader. With increased white blood cells comes a fever. Fasting helps because the body doesn't have to digest any processing food so it can finish up house cleaning.
How do we deprive the body of enzymes? We eat foods that aren't raw - foods that have been processed. Pasteurized milk has enzymes but they are rendered inactive due to heat. If you apply heat above 112 degrees Farenheit most enzymes are denatured and dead. Chemicals added to foods can render enzymes inactive. Oxygen can render enzymes inactive (i.e. take a bite of an apple). Radiation (microwave) destroys enzymes. 12 other countries have outlawed radiation (microwaves) for food.
Dr. Pottenger wanted to know what processed foods would do to the body. His research was funded by himself. He divided 800-900 cats into 5 groups. The first 2 groups he fed raw foods. The other groups he fed processed foods. The first generation cats eating processed foods developed diseases near the end of their lifespans (diabetes, flu, allergies, cancer, etc.). The second generation developed those same diseases in the middle of their lifespans. The third generation of cats developed those diseases early - they were either born with the disease or it was a matter of days or weeks. Many of them were deformed. The pens where the processed food cats were kept had nothing growing in them. The pens where the raw food cats were kept had all sorts of things growing in them (plants). The third generation cats could not conceive - they were sterile. Or they would spontaneously abort.
The cells of the body give up their organic, alkaline minerals when you eat processed food (because the body needs enzymes to convert the calories/food into energy). It pulls minerals out of our tissues because they are the least vital tissues for our survival.
There are two types of calories:
1. Live calories
2. Dead calories
To burn fat cells, it takes enzymes. Start eating live foods and you don't need to count calories! You will lose weight.
If heat has been applied to fat (oils) before it hits your mouth, it's going to be sticky to your arteries. Enzymes in things like avocados actually break down the fat and get it out of our system!
The only answer to free radical pathology (you put something in the body that should never have been in there in the first place, produce imbalanced molecules) is live food. Every degenerative disease has at its root free radical pathology, which can only be solved by eating enzymes!
The more we do to food, the less value it has.ALLERGIES
Is it the pollen or is it the person? It's the person.
It depends on the body's health. Healthy bodies do not have allergies. The body can be in a weakened state through stress and succumb to irritants in the air (like hay fever).
There are two types of allergies that he references in this talk:
The reason the body reacts to airborne (pollen, ragweed, dust) is because the substance gets inside the body/the membranes. When it breaks through the body has a reaction and recognizes it has a foreign invader so it releases histamine. Histamines are released to cause localized swelling. The idea is to isolate this foreign invader to keep it from going deeper into the body. It's a defense mechanism. We look at that symptom as the enemy (if I could just get the itching or swelling down, I've solved the problem...right?), and take an anti-histamine. Have I really solved it? No, I haven't dealt with why the body is responding.
Why was that substance able to penetrate and get in the body when we have these natural defenses to keep it out? The mucus membrane is there to keep foreign invaders out. Why would something be able to penetrate? Because that membrane is in a weakened state.
What weakens it? Our fork, what we put in our mouth. That membrane has to be fed, nourished to maintain itself. The mucus membranes are one of the faster replacing cells in the body. The intestinal tract is the fastest. If there are no materials to build a new, healthy cell with, then it's not a good membrane.
Some people chalk it all up to stress. This is not completely off base. What does it cost the body to deal with stress? Vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, carbohydrates. It is an expenditure that you weren't counting on. Some things go by the way side - there is only so much nutrition in the body, only so much we can take in each day. Stress can tax the body so much that it pulls things away from tissues in the body so they're not available. So those tissues are not fed, they're not healthy, and we have problems. In a word, this is "deficiency." Not feeding the body what it needs, especially the mucus membrane.
There is another factor involved as well: toxicity. Toxicity is a substance that has no value to the body whatsoever AND will cost our body to deal with it.
Every day we live, most Americans are consuming toxins. Air pollution, chemicals/preservatives in our food and water. Those come in and the body hands them over to the liver. The liver's main purpose is to neutralize toxins. It's #2 job is to eliminate metabolic waste products from our body. Dealing with toxins is a luxury function. When the liver gets overloaded it ends up storing a lot of these toxins and becomes a congested liver. When this happens it has to prioritize its role and it releases toxins into the bloodstream.
Our body is always desiring to return to health. If the liver can't handle the toxins, it hands them to the mucus membranes. Why the mucus membranes? Because they are already making a fluid that is leaving the body, so why not put some poisons with it and get it out? Unfortunately, that causes those membranes to become somewhat inflamed. They weren't designed to do that so they're going to rebel a bit. That's called inflammation. If the membrane is then in a weakened state due to deficiency and inflammed due to toxicity, when you go out and breath the pollen the membrane does not have the normal barrier up so these will penetrate and get into the body. Then you have an allergic reaction. It is the combination of deficiency and toxicity that creates this problem.
Just address these two issues, deficiency and toxicity, the allergies will go away. It usually takes 2 years, or sometimes 1 year, then it goes away.
For airborne allergies, first, be tested for what you're allergic to. You need to know what your body is reacting to so you can try to deal with the reaction. To give the membranes, immune system, and body a rest so it can deal with repair. What can you do in the meantime? Allergy shots is one option. Another option is homeopathy. Or maybe herbs. They help control the body's reaction. It costs our body more to start it back up rather than just keep it running (keep our immune system running).
Allergy shots don't work after about 18 months - 3 years. They do help initially.
What do the mucus membranes need a lot of? Vitamin C, Vitamin A, water.
In summary, for airborne allergies: Test, find out what you're allergic to, find an appropriate remedy to control (homeopathy or allergy shots), feed the membranes Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and water.
For food allergies, if you take any food and break it down to its basic nutrient components, virtually every food has glucose, protein (amino acids), fats, minerals, enzymes/vitamins, and sometimes water. Why should the body react to something it was designed to run on? Any food you want to name, broken down to its basic nutrient components, should be able to be used and recognized by your body.
Why would it react? It has to react to something in those basic components. Without those components there is no life. So what is the body reacting to? It has nothing to do with the food being consumed, it has to do withdigestion of the food. Good digestion should take any food and break it down to those basic components and then hand those nutrients to the liver, which then disseminates them to the body. Good digestion should do that. So why would the body react? The body reacts because that food is not being thoroughly, properly, adequately digested. It's not being broken down to its basic nutrient components.
Food allergies is a digestive problem.
The most common allergy is the inability to digest protein. Protein is made up of amino acids. Those are building blocks. A good analogy would be the alphabet. There are 26 letters in the alphabet. How many words can you make from the alphabet? There is no limit. So with the 24 amino acids that make up the thousands of proteins in this body, the same 24 amino acids make up carrots, dogs, cats, etc.
If your body wants to make a new heart cell, the heart does not care about the source of the amino acids -- the digestive system does care. It just needs amino acids to make a new heart cell. It wants it in the blood stream as amino acids. It comes into our system as food. It is our digestive system's job to take the food and break it down into individual amino acids. If it only breaks food down to thedipeptide stage, it will also absorb in the blood stream as a dipeptide. How much digestion takes place in the blood stream? None. How would the body view that then? Medically, as a Circulating Immune Complex (CIC) - a foreign invader, something that shouldn't be there. If this is a component of food allergies - the allergy mechanism of the body releases antibodies to go in and grab these CICs, and it's going to grab them, neutralize them, and there they go. The body would rather not do that. If the liver, the great detoxifier of the body, is in great shape it will grab these CICs and eliminate them. If your liver's in great shape, no food allergies - even if you have a digestive problem. If you have food allergies then you know that you have a congested liver. This will not show up in blood tests, you will not have elevated liver enzymes - so if you go to a traditional MD they will tell you that you don't have a liver problem because your blood tests come back normal.
If the liver is congested, it is unable to detoxify the CICs. So the body gathers up antigens (which are protein structures that are chemically the opposite of the CICs), which neutralize the CICs. However, the liver is not able to eliminate the CICs so it has to find another way to get rid of it. So the body sends it to the mucus membranes (sinuses, lungs, or skin) in an attempt to get rid of it.
Let's work on the cause: digestion, strengthening the mucus membranes and/or skin.
How do we help with digestion?
A gland is running slow if it is lacking certain nutrients. If you give the gland a hormone it will often start slowing down even more. Secondly, we have not addressed: why is the gland running slow? It is not a hormone deficiency. It is lacking certain nutrients. Most glands are missing minerals and fatty acids - good fats. Same with the digestive system. It is running slow if it is lacking the proper enzymes.
Dr. Edward Howell was a Medical Doctor who went into practice in the 1930s and is considered the Father of Enzymology (the study of enzymes). He did many studies himself on enzymes and collected thousands and thousands of enzymes. The most studied phenomena of medical science is enzymes. And yet the least talked about, the least addressed. One of the theories that he came up with is "the enzyme bank account." We are born with a certain amount of enzymes in our bank account. If you equate enzymes to money: everyday we live we are going to "spend" a certain amount of enzymes to live. Every metabolic function requires enzymes to happen. You can hand the cell all the protein, glucose, minerals, and water you want, but nothing's going to happen without enzymes. Laman's definition of enzymes would be "chemical lubricant." It lubricates the metabolism of the body. The engine of the automobile does not run on oil, however, how efficient is that engine without oil? It just doesn't happen. So what he theorized is that we are born with this bank account, and it's not the same for everybody - it depends on what mother was eating when she was carrying that child and her health when she conceived. Dad even has some part in it, but most of it has to do with what mother was consuming when she carried that child. So everyday we live, we are going to burn enzymes to keep the brain functioning, the heart, etc. including digesting food - that takes enzymes. We have the choice of replenishing the account everyday. And that is by taking in foods that have the live enzymes in them - by eating raw foods. And if you want to eat raw meat, I don't suggest that, but ok that is a good source. Raw fruits and vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, sprouted beans are all good sources to pay back the account for what our body spent that day. But the average American will go 7-14 days without consuming something raw. And even when they do consume something raw it might just be a slice of tomato. So what's going to happen to that account? It becomes depleted. You can make a science experiment out of this: if you want to deplete the account of the enzymes needed to digest carbohydrates, just eat a lot of refined sugar or a lot of processed, complex carbohydrates.
Something else that Howell found that every food in nature, in its raw form, let's say that that food happens to be high in carbohydrates, it has an appropriate amount of carbohydrate splitting enzymes. In the proper amount to digest the amount of carbohydrate in it. If that food has a lot of protein, guess what kind of enzyme is in there? Protease - protein splitting enzyme.
So if you grow up eating a lot of cooked/processed protein, which enzyme are you going to deplete? If you grow up eating a lot of fried/fatty foods, you're going to find that fatty foods don't agree with you. When you were younger you could eat a lot of fatty foods, but now you're gaining weight because when those fats come in the body would love to break them down and use them for energy but your body does not have the enzymes anymore, and all it can afford to do is store them as fat. Or protein, if you just get indigestion and heartburn...I wonder why.
So we depleted the account. We want to replenish to the body not the end product enzymes (i.e. at the health food store - hydrochloric acid, etc.). What would be a approach is to hand the stomach cells the enzymes they need to make hydrochloric acid as opposed to just taking HCl. There's no reason for your body to heal and you're not feeding the body what it needs to heal if it's going to. Let's eat better - raw fruits and vegetables, drink fresh juice. However, a little paradox: you're eating all these good foods now but due to past sins you're not able to get out of that food all that's in there. So you're going to need to supplement with enzymes -- plant enzymes/vegetarian enzymes. Taking these with a meal does not allow you to just eat whatever you want to. You have to avoid food allergies while you are replenishing your diet with enzymes. Some food allergies are so bad that you have to use HCl and pancreatic enzymes along with. But we try just the plant enzymes first. If you're not seeing results after about a month you may want to add HCl along the way.
Thirdly, you can find homeopathy remedies for food allergies. It is a control mechanism to put the digestive system in a sling while it's allowing it to heal.
In general there are 3 foods that contribute to both types of allergies (whenever a patient complains about sinus problems, when the pollen comes out, or they complain of a food allergy, once they get off of these for 3 weeks see what happens): dairy - with the exception of butter, wheat, and corn. Those are the most common. They all contain a protein. Wheat contains a protein called gluten which a lot of people have struggles with. And dairy seems to have a protein (casein) that people with allergies struggle with. Relieving the body of having to deal with those usually really helps with all types of allergies.
Most people go into the natural realm with the concept: doc, what can I take to feel better? You've asked the wrong question. The first question should be: what was I doing wrong that caused this problem? The body was not designed to have symptoms unless we have violated it in some way.
What was I doing wrong / what do I need to correct / what do I need to change in my lifestyle? Diet. That's the biggest area. And we need to lean towards fresh and raw: 70% at least. Avoid the caffeine, avoid the red meats, avoid the fried foods, sugars, refined flours. Not totally. It is not necessary to be 100% strict and rigid. The body can handle 30% of cooked foods. Also, the more rigid you are the more nutrition and energy you burn worrying about "I am not quite good enough." Don't make this a religion, don't become a fanatic - just make better choices. One bad meal is not going to ruin your health.
Exercise is helpful to cleanse the body as well.
Stress creeps up on us because it is very difficult to measure. Everyday that we're under stress causes our body to expend more energy than average. And yet we only eat and sleep enough for one day so we accrue a debt. Thinking also comes out of the same bucket of energy.
People with asthma are usually perfectionists who spend a lot of time worrying they aren't quite good enough. Most children with asthma are first born children. They have a unique temperament about them: they are great leaders, they are smothered with love, they are responsive to leadership, and they want to please. It is energy economics. The emotion realm got the energy. So the liver is taxed and the negatives are handed to the lungs. So stress is a real factor.
One other factor is attitude. Perfectionism often translates to self criticism.
If you are a parent with a child who has asthma, ask yourself if you are smothering them or putting too much pressure on them. Then back off.
Irritation (attitude) is another one. Who are you allergic to? ;-)
What can I take to facilitate the body's road back to health?
A therapy is only as good/effective as the body can respond to it. What determines the body's response? How sound it is nutritionally.HERBS
Herbs have vitamins, minerals, protein, etc... but they also have another ingredient which sets them apart from food: a known toxin. That's what makes an herb an herb, what separates it from being a food. It's not a chemical toxin, therefore it is not as a-negative to the body, but it is still a foreign substance that a body has no use for and will cost us to deal with it.
There are times when herbs are important, necessary, and needed.
You're not sick due to an herbal deficiency. There's no such thing. You're sick due to a faulty lifestyle. You weren't feeding your body what it needed. You're poisoning your system, your deficient. But if we're in a crisis right now, trying to avoid surgery or medication, you can take an herb that will potentially avoid you having to do those things. But that's not the answer. The answer is we need to get your body de-toxified and feed it.
Here's how herbs work. Does the laxative move the bowel or does the bowel move the laxative? The bowel moves the laxative. We need to be asking the questions: why is the bowel sluggish? Why is it not working right? What do I need to do to help it? Maybe it's not enough roughage in my diet, not enough fluid.
Another example: a person says they have a congested liver. They take goldenseal to flush the liver. Do you not think that your body already knows that the liver is congested? And the body would love to de-congest the liver. Why is the body not doing that already? Could it be it can't afford it because of your lifestyle? Because there's not enough nutrition in it to do that, because you keep poisoning the liver and it can't get its nose above water? So why would I want to force the body to cleanse the liver when it knows that it wants to but it can't afford to?
The herb does not provide the energy, it provides the stimulant.
So where does the body get the energy to cleanse the liver? Well, goldenseal is a threat to the liver, so the body finds what energy it can to cleanse. But at what cost to you? People take herb after herb after herb and get more tired and more tired and more tired.
There are times when herbs are important, though. For example, if a person is having a heart attack give them nitroglycerin, which is a poison/toxin. How can it keep them from dying? It dialates the blood vessels, gets more nutrition into the heart. But why wasn't the body already doing that? It couldn't afford it. The nitro forced the issue.
Use herbs when there is a crisis, but don't think that they are the answer.
