Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition (147 page)

Inflammation in the gut, such as in Crohn’s disease, increases the production of serotonin, which in turn activates the Wnt system. Most people are continually eating foods that cause low-grade inflammation in the gut. The standard American diet is basically an inflammatory diet. Inflammatory cytokines have been shown to increase after eating a high-fat, high-sugar meal. This increases serotonin and activates the Wnt system, reducing bone cell production.

Vitamin D levels

Possible celiac and/or food sensitivity testing

HCl self-test or Heidelberg capsule test

Nutritional testing for vitamins and minerals

Get exercise.
Exercise builds muscle and bone. It’s not optional. Find something you like to do and do it regularly.

Balance pH.
When cells are in a low level of chronic acidosis, we pull minerals from bone to balance blood pH levels. (See
Chapter 17
.)

Optimize vitamin D levels.
Get your vitamin D level tested. Bringing vitamin D to optimal levels works as effectively to build bone as medications do. Aim for 60 to 100 ng/ml of 25-0H vitamin D. For maintenance, take 2,000 IU daily. For optimizing levels, take 5,000 to 10,000 IU daily.

Decrease inflammation.
Eat more fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and beans. Lower your intake of processed foods, salt, low nutrient-density foods, caffeine, and alcohol. Stop smoking. Use herbs and spices in cooking. Eat a rainbow of foods. If this still isn’t enough, use anti-inflammatory herbs and nutrients such as fish oil, vitamin D, and curcumin. This is discussed in detail in
Chapter 9
.

Practice stress-management skills.
See
Chapter 16
for techniques for lowering stress.

Take bone-building supplements.
Take a multivitamin plus a bone-building supplement that contains calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin K, and other nutrients.

Explore HCl adequacy.
Do the self-test in
Chapter 11
or get tested for achlorhydria.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin rash characterized by scaling, patchy, or silvery-looking skin. It has a cyclic nature, flaring up and simmering down. It can affect just knees, elbows, or scalp or can spread over most of the body. It often occurs at the site of a previous injury. Psoriasis often runs in families and usually develops gradually. It affects about 1 percent of the American population as a whole (4.5 million) but 2 to 4 percent of Caucasians.

Psoriasis occurs when skin cells mature too quickly. Skin cells build up on the surface, causing red, scaly patches that often itch or are uncomfortable. Psoriasis flares up because of stress, severe sunburn, irritation, skin creams, antimalarial therapy, or withdrawal from cortisone, or it can be brought on by other triggers. People with psoriasis have an excess of T-helper cell (Th-1) inflammatory cytokines and relatively few Th-2 cytokines. One of the new theories about psoriasis is that superantigens trigger the disease. These prime the T cells to produce high amounts of inflammatory cytokines. These superantigens also contribute to leaky gut, which allows greater exposure to antigens or toxins, including microbial factors. Subsequently these can be deposited along basement membrane in the skin. Immune complexes develop. It’s believed that there is a molecular mimicry between H. pylori antigens and keratin 17, which may cause keratin to proliferate. Keratin is the tough, fibrous protein component of skin, hair, and nails. So when we produce a lot more keratin, the skin gets tough and fibrous. If we look at the DIGIN section of the book, all of these factors play a role: leaky gut, dysbiosis, inflammation, and antigens.