Food Either Heals or Kills You....Choose Wisely!

Your Gut is the First Line Defense Against Disease: Stop Killing Yourself with Fake Food!

For 20+ years I struggled with bloating, gas, diarrhea (I know….not what you needed to know about me, but hang with me, this really will be educational), joint pain (Diagnosed with Lupus in the 1990’s), chronic urticaria that nearly drove me insane and left lots of scars from scratching so badly on my arms, anxiety at night and fatigue.   I have had 3 colonoscopies (the first one alone at the age of 20 in college), 2 endoscopies, 2 barium swallow tests and many visits to gastroenterologists in 3 different states.  NOT ONE TIME did any MD EVER ask me, “Dani, what do you eat? Do you take digestive enzymes before meals; do you take probiotics after meals?  Do you know your food sensitivities?

It wasn’t until I started work at Cool Springs Family Medicine over 4 1/2  years ago that I was asked those questions above and found the answers that I had been searching for! 20+ years of suffering, and being sick from FOOD started to disappear after I implemented the anti-inflammatory healing process outlined later. When I did IgG serum antibody testing for food sensitivities I had 29 out of 96 foods on it that were inflaming my body and causing my symptoms. Eggs were the highest in inflammation (I won’t be eating any of the eggs my chickens just started laying today), yeast, milk, cheese and yes SALMON were on the list.  Even healthy food, can be harmful for you, if your body is inflamed.

 Am I bitter and angry over all those years of what seems like malpractice to me by provider after provider?  NOPE, I have decided that those years of misery and being sick from food and inflammation are exactly what I need to share with patients daily to help set them on the healing journey they must begin to heal their bodies as well.

I tell patients’ everyday in my own practice now that, “Food either heals you or kills you, it’s your choice how you feel”.  It’s not very nice, but it’s true. I didn’t know anything about gut health for years and I accepted every prescription the doctors gave me from Xanax, Librium, Nexium, Prilosec, Bentyl, Prozac etc….for irritable bowel syndrome and nervous stomach.  I was told over and over that I just needed to “calm down, relax, and not be so high strung”. They weren’t the ones pooping their brains out after every meal and full of very unflattering gas (most of the time before I ever left the restaurant). I was given multiple prescriptions to treat the SYMPTOMS not the ROOT of the problem. 

“The inside of the gut is evident on the outside of our bodies” I heard a speaker talk about one time.  I believe that.  If the gut is 75-80% of our immune system and our gut is inflamed and toxic, then our largest organ in our body is as well. Not only is the majority of the immune system located in our gut, so is 75% or more of the serotonin in our body!  The neurotransmitter that helps with anxiety and depression.....no wonder the gut is called the second brain.  Leaky gut happens when the gap junctions of the gut are not tight from years of antibiotics, fake inflammatory food, alcohol, stress, sickness etc. The toxins release into the bloodstream.  That release of toxins causes the immune system to go haywire eventually and the basis for illness. The GALT, also known as the gut-associated lymphoid tissue, lies just below the lining of the gut wall.  This tissue is only one cell thick and specializes in immune structures that are called Peyer’s patches and are loaded with the B and T immune cells.  Those cells are responsible for recognizing and stopping harmful bacteria in the gut.  It’s the Peyer’s patches that alert the immune system to stop the pathogenic bacteria that is trying to pass through the gut! When that system fails from years of abuse, then LEAKY GUT takes over our body.  The gut wall is the only thing that stands between every nasty thing inside your gut and your bloodstream! Disgusting to think about all the Captain Crunch, Pop tarts, TV Dinners, Cheeto’s, Coke’s, Chocolate Icing from a can, Swiss Cake Rolls that I have eaten in my lifetime just inflaming up my body by leaching out of a very inflamed leaky gut! 

4 ½ years have passed since I started working on my leaky gut and joint pain. And I rarely have any GI issues anymore, unless I eat those mushrooms that are on my list of inflammatory foods! I have had salmon 2x in 4 years and both times in the bathroom before the meal was over! That’s enough to make me a believer. 

Below is a basic plan for healing the gut and stopping the inflammation in your body.  Research has shown that inflammation is the root of most major chronic illnesses. Heart disease, atherosclerosis, DM, Celiac Disease, Crohn’s Disease and the list goes on and on.  The landmark book The Mood Cure The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions--Today  outlines the research that when you heal the gut the psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, etc. begin to lesson as your body absorbs the amino acids needed for balance. The majority of the neurotransmitters needed for psychological health, are not located in the brain….they are in the GUT!

1.    Digestive Enzymes at the beginning of 2 meals a day. Enzymes break down food and help close the leaky gut.  They work like an adaptogen by helping diarrhea and improving constipation we use Innate Response - Plant Enzymes 90 tabs or Enzalase from Master Supplements. 

2.    Probiotics with at least 20 billion flora per 14 strains of bacteria.  These are alive and kept cold. Take them at the end of the largest meal to inoculate that gut with all the good bacteria.

3.    An anti-inflammatory, real food diet.  Non-processed, no fake food. I tell people if it was made in a plant, it is FAKE food! If you have to open it from a package, bag, can, box, tube, roll etc. it is not real food.  I rotated between a few probiotics like  Innate Response - Flora 20-14 Probiotic 60c(F) [Health and Beauty], Theralac and Tru Flora from Master Supplements. 

1. Metagenics 10 day ULTRA CLEAR RENEW Metagenics - UltraClear RENEW Original (21 svgs) detox: The first step in decreasing inflammation. 

      2. Paleo Diet, Mediterranean Diet, The Virgin Diet The Virgin Diet: Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days  are good anti-inflammatory diets. And there are loads of books out there on these diets.  My favorite Paleo Diet book is, It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways.  My favorite protein shake that I drink every morning is Numedica, Total Vegan Chocolate Delight 21.86 Oz

     3.     Finding out your food sensitivities with an IgG blood test from a provider that offers this testing.  I use Alletess currently at my office. I am also looking in to Allcat and Cyrex testing as well in the future. 

 Alletesse: www.foodallergy.com

Health and healing is a full body process.  It takes mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health working together in harmony.  And when any of these are off, the whole system is interrupted. I myself am a work in progress, am not where I need to be, but am so much better than were I was! Exercise, community with people I adore and respect, clean diet and lots of laughing have given me my life back and I wouldn’t eat a POP TART now for any amount of money! It’s not rocket science, the Bible taught us that our body is a temple…treat it like one! NO excuses….JUST DO IT!  Start today, you won’t be sorry!

Dani Williamson, MSN, CNM, FNP

Integrative Family Medicine
330 Mallory Station Road Suite B3
Franklin TN 37067
615-944-3530 Scheduling
615-550-2641 fax

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