Tag Archives: autoimmune

Don’t Make These Common Mistakes When Trying to Boost your Immune System

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Our immune system is comprised of many biological structures, and is quite a wondrous thing. Give it the tools it needs, and it detects and protects us from potentially fatal invaders including bacteria, parasites, and viruses. As with anything else if you don’t put the right fuel in it’s not going to be able to perform at its best, so here I’ll discuss how to do that in a way that isn’t counterproductive.

With flu season upon us, “immune boosters” are all the buzz. No one wants to get sick! Nature provides medicine for every ailment – if you have even a bit of influence over whether you get sick or not or how quickly you recover from illness, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage?

However, there is such a thing as doing it wrong.

Let’s look at it as three different categories- immune stimulators, immune modulators, and immune essentials.

Immune stimulators:

Many people refer to these as “immune boosters,” but I much prefer to use the term “stimulators.” These are the warriors you keep in your medicine cabinet to launch an attack when you get an invader. They rev up your immune system for war- they can be used prophylactically after exposure, used to kick out a pathogen at the first sign of illness, or used to reduce the duration of an illness. They are not required for immune function, but they can be extremely effective at helping and most have the research to back that. (See a sampling of available studies below- 111 of them!)

However, you don’t always want to stimulate, or “boost” your immune system. These should only be taken on an as-needed basis, not daily. Think of it as sending soldiers out to war- fighting off the enemy is a really tough job. Imagine if you were to send those soldiers off every day to fight, whether they were needed or not. They’d get tired and burnt out after awhile, wouldn’t they? Generally immune stimulators want to be used for 3-4 days, or as directed for your particular ailment by your naturopathic practitioner or herbalist. Immune stimulators are not ideal for those with autoimmune disease or those on immune – suppressing drugs. The following are some of my favorites.

Examples of immune stimulators:

  • Elderberry
  • Echinacea
  • Goldenseal
  • Boneset
  • Pokeweed
  • Tinder conk mushroom
  • Birch polypore mushroom
  • Oyster mushrooms
  • Star anise
  • Andrographis
  • Cats Claw
  • Astragalus
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Wild echinacea purpurea near my house

Immune Modulators:

These are the immune regulators; it is their job to keep the immune system at a healthy baseline. Modulation means being strong enough for pathogens and foreign cells to be destroyed, but also not hyper-reacting to common foods, allergens, environmental organisms, or your own body cells. Take these daily as gentle therapeutics, use prophylactically after exposure, or to support your system in fighting off pathogens at the first sign of illness. Some modulators can also help to stimulate but due to regulating activities that are stronger than their stimulating activities, they are safe for autoimmune disorders. To determine whether a substance in question falls under the category of stimulator or modulator, I generally dissect the individual compounds and study their effect on the immune system. Even with a few modulating phytochemicals, if there is a strong presence of stimulators it will likely provoke the immune system. Alpha-amyrin and astragalin are examples of immune stimulants found in elderberry, for example, that contribute to its stimulating effects.

Examples of immune modulators:

When using medicinal mushrooms it’s very important to avoid the term ingredient “myceliated grain” or “myceliated rice,” as this means your product contains the root structure of the mushrooms grown on grain, instead of the actual mushrooms. It’s a cheaper and more easily mass-produced way of marketing mushrooms without having to go through the effort and expense of providing the actual fruiting bodies. They are not the same thing. If you’re ever in doubt with your mushroom product, buy from the hand that picks your mushrooms so that you know you’re getting the real thing.

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Dried chaga chunks are used to make a delicious tea. Order my wild Wisconsin harvested chaga here and learn more about chaga at Eden Wild Food

Immune essentials:

Immune essentials are crucial nutrients that are required for functioning of the immune system. They are not optional. A balanced diet should provide most of what we need, however many times a supplement is helpful for filling nutritional gaps, especially if your diet is not ideal. In the presence of illness or as a prophylactic help, higher doses than the minimal amount to prevent deficiency can be helpful. For example, I like to take a gram of vitamin C every couple hours when I’m feeling under the weather. However, more is not always better for many vitamins and minerals- you want daily levels that allow the body and immune system to function at optimum levels, without overdosing. For example, overdosing on the vitamin D via supplementation can cause health issues such as a decrease in bone mass. Too much zinc (over 100 mg/day) can actually suppress your immune system. Consult your health practitioner for doses that are right for your body.

Examples of immune essentials:

  • Vitamin C
  • Zinc
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin D
  • Selenium
image

Rose hips have 946% more vitamin C than oranges! Read more here.

So to sum up, these natural medicines can be a wonderful, effective way to stay healthy, but be sure to choose the methods that are right for you- rev up and/or regulate your immune system, and of course supply the vitamins and minerals that are the basic foundation of our bodily functions.

Warmly,

Megan Normansell (Kerkhoff), CHC, AADP, CFH

Certified Holistic Practitioner/Holistic Nutrition/Herbalist/Wild Edibles Guide

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107. Antimicrobial properties of star anise (Illicium verum Hook f).
108. Immune Modulation From Five Major Mushrooms: Application to Integrative Oncology Alena G. Guggenheim, ND; Kirsten M. Wright, BS; Heather L. Zwickey, PhD
109. Medicinal Mushrooms: A Clinical Guide by Martin Powell
110. Mushrooms for Health by Greg Marley
111. Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets

Copyright Megan Normansell 2018 All rights reserved.

Super Immune Chaga Gummies

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As we are entering “chaga season,” I thought I’d share one of my family’s favorite things to do with it- super immune chaga gummies!

For those unfamiliar, chaga is a potent medicinal mushroom that grows in the northwoods of Wisconsin. With hundreds of clinical studies behind it, it’s used for strengthening the immune system, balancing autoimmune disorders, fighting cancer and tumors, cholesterol, blood pressure, eczema, inflammation, and many more.

We first make the chaga tea from the dried chunks, then add maple syrup until nice & sweet. Then follow this recipe, simply substituting the elderberry syrup for chaga. Sometimes we will do half & half. They are delicious and help to keep away the colds & flu that are circulating this time of year!

My hand-harvested Wisconsin chaga to make this recipe is available here!

Warmly,

Megan Normansell (Kerkhoff), CHC, AADP, CFH

Certified Holistic Practitioner/Holistic Nutrition/Herbalist/Wild Edibles Guide

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The Greatest Threat to Human Health May be in Your Fridge Right Now

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I’m still astounded at the millions of people who showed up in 40 countries around the world for “March Against Monsanto” on May 25 to work to save our food supply, protect our health, and save our environment. I was honored to be asked to speak about the health effects of GMOs at our Appleton event, and we had a fantastic group of nearly 200 show up. Thank you to all how participated- you were a part of history!! In case you missed it, the following is my speech along with some pictures from that day.

“Our bodies have an amazing ability to heal when given half the chance. I’ve seen it all- heart disease healed, chronic pain healed, obesity healed, diabetes healed, cancer healed, depression healed, allergies healed, infertility healed. The power of food has no limits. But when we consume this 70% of our grocery store food that is genetically modified & toxic- promoting disease and blocking healing- our bodies end up in a sorry state.

Cancerous tumors, accelerated aging, infertility, allergies, birth defects…

You’d think a product that causes this level of devastation would immediately be banned by the government, in an effort to protect us citizens.

When an herbal supplement, for example, causes one death when misused, is it all over the news and immediately the FDA jumps on it and bans it. So why, with the remarkable amount of evidence that we have today proving that Genetically Modified Organisms are wreaking havoc on our bodies, our environment, our wildlife, our farms, does our government turn a blind eye?

And why, in Spring 2013, did Congress pass a bill that protected the rights of the company who creates this product, and in turn taking away our rights away as citizens? They can no longer be held responsible when we get sick from their product. We can’t even always choose non-GMOs, because we aren’t even given the right to a label! We can slap a label on a water bottle that says “gluten free” or label orange juice with the vitamin C content, but it’s way too expensive and complicated to add the words “Contains GMOS” to a label? This product, Genetically Modified Organisms, is the largest government-endorsed mass-poisoning of US citizens we ever seen, unprecedented in history. This is the greatest threat to human health most of us will ever see in our lifetimes.

Monsanto, the same company that brought us Agent Orange, DDT, & PCB’s is now biochemically producing nearly all of our corn, soy, cotton, sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, and canola in the US. Two newcomers to the GMO list are zucchini & crookneck squash. Did you know that nearly all grocery store milk today contains genetically modified ingredients? Most milk, ice cream, cheese, & yogurt you see on shelves today comes from cows treated with rBGH, Monsanto’s genetically engineered synthetic growth hormone. If you or your children have received vaccinations in the last decade, you’ve likely been injected with cloned or genetically engineered viruses.

While countries like Japan, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Ireland and many more are banning these controversial crops, our government- that works for us, the people- has chosen to not only ignore our demands, but pass laws to protect this company from being held responsible for the worldwide devastation they are causing.

As the information I’m giving you today is based on valid scientific studies, I think it’s important to understand Monsanto’s version of what’s considered science. Here’s a few interesting points from Monsanto’s cornerstone study for proving the safety of GMO’s:

  • The study lasted only 90 days
  • Test subject’s organs were never measured
  • GM’s were diluted up to 12 times. According to an expert review, this was most likely done to prevent any undesirable effects from occurring before the short test period was up.
  • Samples were pooled from different locations and conditions, and data from the only side-by-side comparison was removed and never published.

Monsanto & USDA studies are, on average, 90 days. Between 1992 & 2002, when we had the biggest boom in GMO’s, the USDA spent $1.8 billion on GMO research. 1% of that went to safety testing. Meanwhile, the agricultural industry uses its patents to maintain tight control over who researches what, how the research is done, and on what outcomes they would like to be made public at US Universities.

The longest, most comprehensive study on GMO’s was conducted at France’s University of Caen, and published in the peer-reviewed journal “Food & Chemical Toxicity.” Over the course of 2 years, 10 groups of rats were fed either GMO corn or Roundup herbicide in their water, or both, and the control groups consumed non-GMO corn, and non-GMO rat chow. Nothing much happened in the first 90 days, which is the industry’s gold standard time frame for GMO testing. But after those initial 90 days?

The groups fed the Round-up ready corn & Roundup herbicide both showed “severe adverse health effects” including mammary tumors, & kidney & liver damage, leading to premature death. This happened whether they were consumed separately or together. At the end of the study, 50-80% of the females had large tumors, compared to small tumors in 30% of the control groups. 50% of males & 70% of females died prematurely in the Roundup/GMO groups, vs 30% & 20% in the control groups.

One action of Round-up, or glyphosate, is that it chelates vital minerals from plants. By depriving the plant of iron, zinc, copper, manganese, magnesium, calcium, boron, and other nutrients, the plant dies. And this action doesn’t stop at just plants- it also continues on to deplete these same nutrients from us. Alzheimer’s, for example, is a disease linked with reduced copper and magnesium- this disease has jumped 9000% since 1990. Glyphosate-induced mineral deficiencies can easily go unidentified and untreated. Laboratory tests can sometimes detectadequate mineral levels in the body, but miss the fact that glyphosate has already rendered them unusable. Deficiencies in these particular minerals alone can cause disorders ranging from heart disease and osteoporosis to obesity and arthritis.

A press advisory from The American Academy Of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) was sent out in 2009, calling for immediate moratorium On Genetically Modified Foods. They urged physicians to “educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible, and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.” They also recommended that physicians should “consider the role of GM foods in their patients’ disease processes.”

The AAEM states the following as the health risks of GMOs:

  • Infertility
  • Immune problems
  • Accelerated aging
  • Insulin regulation
  • Changes in major organs
  • Gastrointestinal changes and problems
  • Here’s a sampling of some more results of independent studies:
  • GMO potatoes were found to cause cancer in rats
  • GMO foods were found to disrupt the kidneys, liver, heart, & spleen in rats & mice
  • GMO bt toxin corn induced autoimmune disease in mice, commonly associated with arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, osteoporosis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
  • Indian studies found infertility, spontaneous abortion, premature birth, and premature death in buffalo fed GMO cotton products
  • Animals fed GMO foods have developed bleeding stomach ulcers
  • Soy allergies have skyrocketed after the introduction of GMO soy- many believe there is a relationship between the two.
  • GM genes have been found to damage human gut flora, which may play a role in GMO’s links to autoimmune disease, impaired immunity, cancer, and allergies.
  • GMO corn was found to cause sterility in pigs

Now fertility is an important topic, as we continue to find reproductive failure as a recurring theme in studies. What do we, the human species, have, if not the ability to reproduce? How can humankind possibly continue if we are sterilizing ourselves with every bite?

When it comes to infertility, research suggests that glyphosates could be to blame. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide created by Monsanto- aka Roundup. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide. Many crops today are genetically modified to be resistant to this chemical, therefore larger than normal doses can be used to kill invading plants, without risk of harming the crop. It is believed that this herbicide throws off the delicate balance of hormones required for both conception and for fetal growth.

A study published in 2000 found that in humans, Roundup interferes with an enzyme involved in testosterone production, as well as aromatase, an estrogen biosynthesis enzyme. A 2009 study on mice found Roundup-induced chromosomal aberrations and damage to DNA. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition October 1999 it was published that glyphosate may interfere with folic acid absorption, which could increase risk of chromosome disorders and spina bifida. Although purely speculation at this point, doesn’t it seem possible that glyphosate could play a large part in the chromosomal disorders we see today, such as Down Syndrome & Turner Syndrome?

In government-sponsored research in Italy, mice fed Monsanto’s bt-toxin corn had damaged sperm cells and their offspring had a 5-fold increase in mortality, with an inability to reproduce. In a 2009 French study, scientists discovered that Roundup kills the outer layers of cells on the placenta of pregnant women, which can ultimately kill the placenta. These results were from the use of small, residual amounts of glyphosate- the levels typically found in the standard American diet. A Canadian study of 4,000 pregnant women found that women exposed to glyphosate during the 3 months before pregnancy had a significantly higher risk of miscarriage. When fathers were exposed shortly before conception, the women had a moderate increase in preterm delivery and miscarriage.

A 2005 study at the Russian National Academy of Sciences found that 50% of the babies from rats fed GMO soy died within 21 days. The non-GMO control group had a 10% death rate. The babies in the GMO group were also smaller and infertile. In a Canadian study it was found that bt-toxin is now present in 69% of non-pregnant women’s blood samples, and in 93% of pregnant women’s. In frogs & chicken embryos Roundup was found to cause malformations of the skull, face, brain, and spinal cord.

It may not seem like you are able to save the world as one person, but when we all come together we create a ripple effect that WILL change the world. Fight back with your grocery dollars by buying organic. Even better, buy organic & local. Vote this company out by not giving them your money. Fight back by not using hazardous chemicals in your lawn or home.  Tell your friends, neighbors, family, about the devastation that is happening right under their noses- the public deserves to know. Demand labels. Write your representatives. Meet with them. Keep writing and meeting with them if they continue to vote against what the people are demanding. We may not be able to buy members of Congress like Monsanto, but we can keep bugging them until they listen!

Sources:

J Toxicol Environmental Health, Use of genetically modified viruses and genetically engineered virus-vector vaccines- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16982535

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious

Disease, Vaccines

– http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/vaccines/understanding/pages/typesvaccines.aspx

The American Journal of Pathology, The Endogenous Adjuvant Squalene Can Induce a Chronic T-Cell-Mediated Arthritis in Rats, 2000- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1850095/

NVIC.org Rotavirus- http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Rotavirus.aspx

PharmPro January 16, 2012 – http://www.pharmpro.com/articles/2012/01/expanding-vaccine-market

SourceWatch.org – http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bayer

Greenpeace.org – http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/genetic-engineering/ge-industry/other-companies/

Organic Consumers Association, USDA Watch- http://www.organicconsumers.org/usda_watch.cfm

Monsanto.com Who We Are – http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/Pages/monsanto-relationships-pfizer-solutia.aspx

Seattle Global Justice August 25, 2010 – http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/2010/08/for-immediate-release-gates-foundation-invests-in-monsanto/

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating by Jeffrey M. Smith

Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods by Jeffrey M. Smith

Scientific American September 19, 2011

Chemical Research in Toxicology 2010; 23(10):1586-1595

Ecological Society of America August 2005; 15(4): 1118-1124

Walsh, LP; McCormick, C; Martin, C; Stocco, DM (2000). “Roundup inhibits steroidogenesis by disrupting steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein expression”. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1638308/ Environmental health perspectives 108 (8): 769-76. doi:10.1289/ehp.00108769. PMC1638308. PMID10964798. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10964798

Prasad, Sahdeo; Srivastava, Smita; Singh, Madhulika; Shukla, Yogeshwer (2009). “Clastogenic Effects of Glyphosate in Bone Marrow Cells of Swiss Albino Mice”. Journal of Toxicology 2009: 1. doi:10.1155/2009/308985http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jt/2009/308985/

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Daruich, Jorgelina; Zirulnik, Fanny; Giménez, María Sofía (2001). “Effect of the Herbicide Glyphosate on Enzymatic Activity in Pregnant Rats and Their Fetuses”. Environmental Research 85 (3): 226-31. doi:10.1006/enrs.2000.4229. PMID11237511http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935100942294

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http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx1001749