Melatonin is the natural hormone our pineal glad makes to mellow us out for sleeping. It is available over the counter as well. Enough melatonin will usually put one to sleep, but many complain of bad dreams, due to the fact that they are in fight flight, and headaches the next day. Much like in the waking state, if you are in fight flight you are more likely to interpret events in a negative way. For example, if in a dream, you see a bear and are not in fight flight, it will be a friendly auspicious sign of nurturing warmth or powerful messages. If you are in fight flight it will be accosting you. Even if you don’t remember your dreams, the result is that you wake up exhausted and weighty, swollen or achy and thirsty, and definitely not rested! Add to this, the fact that as we get older, your pineal gland, which is very small often looses some of it’s function. The pineal gland produces melatonin, which helps us get to sleep. Babies produce more of it which is why they sleep so much. as we get older, in order to produce melatonin, one needs to turn the lights down. The chinese warm the area where the third eye would be. Both of these things can be accomplished with an eye mask. The big bulky ones are cumbersome, the simple little ones are better though they don’t last as long.

Like everything, there is no one right use for melatonin. In most cases, it is my opinion, that melatonin is not the final solution to a chronic sleeping disorder. That said, some use it to get over jet lag, or just try to jump start a better sleeping routine. It doesn’t seem to work if you take it and keep running around. Get in bed, read a bit of something like poetry (or some other reading that isn’t a page turner), to a low light, and slowdown. If you go to sleep with a lot of stress and take melatonin, you may have bad dreams because you haven’t addressed the adrenal issue. It is my belief that if you force sleep you are more likely to have bad dreams because you will still be in fight flight. Hence people who take sleeping pills that are drugs, wake up feeling heavy and even head achy.

Yacon is a flowering, perennial plant native to the Peruvian Andes. The yacon roots are pressed to create Yacon Root Syrup or they can be thinly sliced and low-temperature dried to create Yacon Root Chips. It is basically used as a sweetener. Both of these products are available through sunfood nutrition.

There are many factors that can cause one’s microflora to get out of balance, such as the use of antibiotics or a poor diet. Foods that are high in probiotics and commonly available and delicious are Kefir, yogurt, miso, raw foods, tempeh. The Yacon will feed these, so if forinstance, you must sweeten your yogurt, add yacon. If you add tempeh or miso to your soup (after it is not steaming hot so you don’t kill the flora), have a little yacon in your tea afterwards a little while later.

Digestion

Fixing your digestion is likely to fix a lot of other problems with it.  Subtle malnutrition can easily be the cause of everything from skin problems to sleep problems. It can be simple or very complex. It can just be a matter of getting enough water, relaxing when you eat, and eating real food, or all systems related to digestion, including your brain, adrenals,  liver,thyroid,  intestinal lining and kidneys, have all become dis-regulated due to long involvement in compensation due to digestive stresses. They may all need to be supported until they can function better. However, as a rule, it is best to start with the basics.

Fundamentals;

Hcl in the stomach, probiotics in the guts, not over eating and eating nutritionally rich foods, and staying hydrated, are the basics.  Drink water and not much of it while eating. I have articles throughout my site on different approaches and protocols. Below is a short letter I sent to a friend who was trying to help a friend.  She wanted a quick basic overview of what to do for digestion.

This was the letter I sent her.

Dear Daniel,

What your friend should do depends on what the problem is with her digestion/absorption/utilization. It also matters, what her present state of health is, and the genetics of her metabolism.

For Digestion: 6 things:

-A good pro-biotic is a first. Food like Applecider vinegar with the mother in it, miso (dont over heat), kombucha, nata, raw sour kraut, kefir and cultured goat dairys, (a lot of people have reactions to cow dairy protein unfortunately). Also eating raw foods give us some probiotics.

The stomach and gall bladder; breaking down food: Relax and sit when you eat, digestion stops with stress. If you eat standing or stressed you might not produce enough Hcl, which is for stomach digestion, never a bad idea to take some when eating, unless one has an ulcer. Acid indigestion means they need more Hcl, except if they have an ulcer! Papaya enzymes are cheap and soothing to the esophageal lining if one has heart burn or more accurately, acid indigestion.

The duodenum still does some digestion as that is when the bile emulsifies the oils and the pancreas sends out hormones and enzymes. sometimes the bile is too thick, slow to leave the gall bladder, so less effective. The food and product that is good for thinning the bile, is the top of beats with the bottom of the greens. It actually thins it in the liver so that is good. the products I use are Beta tcp by Biotics, or Bile Min by Apex. It is relatively cheap, and also helps with constipation because the oils are processed. If you have gall stones, this could be dangerous, so it can’t hurt to find out if you have stones, and don’t get to enthusiastic with how many beet tops you eat, if you are concerned.

The Pancreas. Only one hundredth of your pancreas makes insulin for transporting sugar into cells, so the poor thing is overworked and can need support to improve digestion because it sends out messages to activate upper digestive processes, and makes certain digestive enzymes. Apex has a subligual to support the pancreas. the best things we can do in our life style for our pancreas, is cut way down on dense sugar items, and lower our stress level because stress makes us produce insulin for energy to run from the tiger as it were. Stress comes in the form of allergies, emotions or attachments, toxins….and the occasional tiger.

-EFA’s (Essential fatty acids); all of them. Eat fresh nuts from their husks, steamed or poached fish cooked with the skin for the fats, use cold pressed oils. If they use supplemental EFA’s, I recommend emulsified EFA’s, because many peoples bile (which is used to emulsify the oils we eat and make them digestible) is too thick from insufficient liver function where the bile is made. Oils are metabolically related to hormones. Since she has gone through menopause, a short half-life sub-lingual progesterone may be good if she has gone through menopause. Gotta ask her doctor about that of course. Apex Energetics has the perfect product.  Get 15 minutes of high sun every day for you D.

-A safe detox product; The only way I recommend detoxing is with Apex Energetics glutathione recycler, or Max gxl or Max One. The later is more expensive but you don’t have to go though a practitioner to get it. I have a site for them because until recently they were  the only place to get a product that had all the essential components for making your natural glutathione. healthkeystones.Max4u.com. Anything that makes you stress is hard on digestion because digestion turns off when you are stressed. To digest well, you have to detox. Some good detox foods are raw sea weed, gogi berries, raw chocolate, greens greens and more greens, berries and tropical fruit, and the cabbage family if she doesn’t have thyroid problems.

- If her guts are inflamed, there is a  drink put out by Apex energetics (I favor Apex, Biotics and Synergy products) that has all kinds of goodies in it that could sooth and help the intestinal lining. Or if she can’t afford that kind of thing, it never hurts to add coconut oil to the diet or eat it straight. This may surprise you but a little organic pork fat also has stuff that helps the intestinal constitution!

Food:

Move toward a nutritionally rich diet. I have articles about this on my web site, but the short of it would be to eat organic fruits vegetables that are as local as possible, Wild fish, Grass fed beef (rare still has enzymes), free range chicken, nuts from their shells, cold pressed oil, raw honey, some raw food every day. and throw out your microwave. It destroys enzymes and makes all carbs for fattening and increases their insulin value.

Don’t: Eat fried foods or over eat. If she has an ulcer, use very little if not no wine, coffee or vinegar until they are gone, and then perhaps still don’t do those things on an empty stomach. Avoid pre-prepared foods and breads that are not sour dough. Canola and margerine and foods with ingredients you don’t recognize. Always relax and sit before eating. If she has crones or inflammatory bowels, raw veggies should be avoided or juiced and in small quantities at first as they are rough on the intestine.  If she knows she has crones, she has a medical doctor she can run this by. I recommend the medical doctor be an integrative one or a naturopath as alopathics who are not integrative  are less likely to try and actually remedy it; Auto immune diseases are not their forte. Again, throw out the microwave! It will increase the insulin value of your carbs, and destroy enzymes as well as make it more fattening.

So there is a brief overview of the basics. Most people will improve tremendously just getting their digestion in order. We are what we digest!

Good luck to you my friend,

Claudia

It is sad but true however, that the pharmaceutical industry, being private in ownership, is not always thinking of the patients best interest. Especially drugs advertised on television, that are presented as remedies, yet no more than mask symptoms at best, and often alter metabolic functions in ways that are detrimental to our long term well being. These advertisements often even claim to be cures when in fact many times, the studies they use to get approval for use, show little substantiation in this, if any.The regulations for approval are questionable. It is understandable how this can come to pass with such large financial stakes, and so very much time and cost for studies done.

The best example I can give of drug misrepresentation as a cure is those used to stop heart burn. These drugs stop you from producing hydroclhoric acid (HCL) for up to 24 hours.  Without HCL, we don’t break down our food or kill unwanted parasites, viruses, fungus’s and bacteria, so we get gas and develop deficiencies that will stop many metabolic functions, in particular, zink without which we can’t produce HCl. The gut swells and inflames due to dis-regulation. This drug should only be used under the most extreme circumstance, and then temporarily. Meanwhile, the cause of acid indigestion is usually either that we are not producing enough HCL so the food stays in our stomach bubbling up. It’s still too acid for our throat, so it burns. Or, it can be that the esophageal sphincter which is between your stomach and throat, is weak, reversing this is more challenging but since in involves strengthening your tissues. So in the long run, more than one part of your body will be better off.

Whistle blower Gwen Olsen (www.gwenolsen.com), a veteran pharmaceutical rep since ’81, came out with a book that details the issue in far greater detail, if you need proof of the above, or just like to get mad….which isn’t good for your digestion! It is worth knowing about this book for the skeptics.

Nice  to have: Hand held blender, vita mix, tongs, spoon with holes in it so the liquid passes, a light weight stainless steal or enamel covered pan that is four or more quart pan for boiling or canning. Mandolin for easy thin slices of potatoes and more. Garlic slicer (for really fine garlic slices).

Zucchini:

Cut as you like, ideally, steam them at a hard boil until they are like you like them. Remember that they keep cooking when you take them off the stove. chop a couple of leaves of mint on it, squish some garlic on the hot zucchini so it cooks a tiny bit and is easier on the stomach, add red wine vinegar and olive oil to taste. Eat hot or cold.

Carrots:

Cut as you like (sometimes I scrub them with a plastic scower pad but I don’t peal them), ideally steam them or boil them depending on what you have and your patients. When they are as you like them, put them in a bowl with a little squeeze of lemon, some cumin, and either olive oil or butter…or both.

Sweet potatoes:

Same deal, cut as you wish, I prefer leaving the good parts of peals on and the texture doesn’t bug me. When they are tender, all they need is a little lemon and mash them up. They are delicious this simple way.

Adding some ground cardamom really works well too.

Broccoli: Cut and steam or boil to taste. Put on a plate and add olive oil and powdered garlic. One can also add vinegar or lemon, or use fresh garlic. I noticed that this was one way I didn’t mind the poweder garlic, it’s quite good, but of course the fresh stuff is better for you. If I use fresh garlic I always add lemon or vinegar.

Sugar snaps;

Just tale the tips off and put them in a pretty bowl. Raw, they are so sweet! If you must cook them, just par boil them.

Cucumber:

slice thin or the slicer on a grater, for one cucumber, add a smashed garlic, a cup of unsweetened yogurt, a pinch of salt and maybe a few slivers of onion. mix it up. Best about a half hour after preparing. If it sits too long the water leaches out. I drink it up and add a little more yogurt.

Or

Slice thin and add some apple cider vinegar and a little slivers of onion. Refrigerate and let sit for a half hour.

Same deal, needs to be eaten sooner than later. Some add a pinch of salt before serving and some add a pinch of sugar as well. I recommend xylitol for this sort of thing though the best sugar by far is Yacon, then stevia, but yacon is dark, and stevia has an anis flavor that may or may not be to your taste.

Cauliflower;

On a low heat, brown at least four large cloves of  garlic chopped medium fine in olive oil, (you might want to use sesami, or grape oil, as it handles the heat better), then add the olive oil later, after everything is off the stove. Steam a salted cauliflower to taste. I find this is best a little bit tender because it absorbs more of the juice. drain the cauliflower, set it in a plate, squeeze  some lemon on it, (maybe about a short teaspoon). Now drizzle a bunch of olive oil on it and them pour the garlic and the rest of oil on it. You may want to add a little course salt on top if you’re a salt buff. Serve. It is also fun to take a spoon and chop at it making it into little pieces, this also mixes in the juices. Makes a great light fritatta or omelet the next day, with parsley and maybe a little pecorino or parmigiano.

Gluten sensitivity responses can be so subtle, you may not even know it is causing a problem in you, but it matters because the resulting inflammation can lead to high cholesterol, digestive disorders, brain fog, and more.

Up until very recently now in 2011, the lab tests were not there for unplugging all the confusion around gluten, but now there is. Cyrexlabs.com is at our service and specializes only on this very topic. It is worth saving up to get these tests. Tell your health practitioner about them, and see if you can get them to write you a referral for them. Tell him or her that they have an MD experienced in these labs with whom they can discuss the outcomes.

It could add a few years and a lot of energy to your life!

Common foods:

Foods high in pectin: Quince, apples.

Seaweeds; make sure you have eaten a little that is raw to digest it better.

Miso don’t heat it, just add it to the soup after it is in the serving bowl.

Iodine (if your not allergic to it).

A bath of 1 lb salt, 1 lb baking soda, and if you can find it, a cup of clay.

Green vegetables.

Max gxl , Glutathion recycler by Apex Energetics, or any like product that has the co-factors for glutathion production.

*Support and/or Coaching.

It is a big deal to stop an addictive behavior. It is really important to have someone to report to on a regular basis on how you are doing. This support cannot be over rated. As a generalization, any addiction, is either used to avoid some feeling, or get too some feeling.  Addictive  personalities as a rule are sensitive in some way, and spiritually inclined people, even if they aren’t religiose in any way. Perhaps, as powerful as the physical alcohol addiction, is the emotional addiction.  A life coach, stable friend, therapist, Alcoholics Anonymous, or joining a spiritual community, all can work to help you hold to your intention of getting clean.

I offer support both as a life coach, and for nutritional guidance.

*This is a nutritional protocol to change a metabolic process that is based on a constant supply of sugar and alcohol.

It is designed to support your liver, pancreas, and brain, that have been working over time and sustained damage. If you can’t afford the supplemental part of it, it can still be done, but may require more medical support and will power.

*The drink you will use for this diet.

You will be making yourself a drink that is very important to this program. It has three things in it to your taste: Green tea, lime or lemon, and maple syrup. Drink a little of this every fifteen minutes when you haven’t been eating for an hour. This will stabilize blood sugar while supporting your immune functions and detoxification. It will modify moodiness and sugar and alcohol cravings. I recommend using using this drink for at least three days, tapering off it after that, only as you crave less of the alcohol.

*What to eat:

You need to eat a steady diet of rare fresh meats, and green vegetables both cooked and raw if your intestines can handle them. Also include any natural foods that you crave such as eggs, bananas, oranges, but not juices other than the ones I mention. Remember, when you drink any juice form of nutrition, swish it around in your mouth before swallowing it. This allows for far better digestion.

Animal fat is important in this diet! It burns slowly and that is what we are trying to transition into.  Especially if you can get organic bacon, butter and eggs over easy. Goat cheese and other whole dairy products. Don’t go for non-fat when it naturally has fat.

Stock your kitchen with cold pressed vegetable oils like olive oil, walnut oil, coconut and sesame oils, organic butter and unfiltered salts, brewers yeast, a healthy blend of fresh nuts and use good fresh fish,  foul, and lamb. If you eat beef, again, try to find small local farm meat, don’t burn it, a little rare is good (but not with burger), because the enzymes aren’t all destroyed and help you digest it.

Remember, always more vegetables than meat. Slowly taper towards fewer starchy carbs. You might want to look at my diet for weight loss for some other healthy options, even though weight loss is not your goal when trying to get off alcohol.

A detail that is likely to also serve you well, is to avoid wheat that isn’t sourdough or sprouted, because your intestinal lining is probably permeable at this point and you are likely to absorb gluten protein which exacerbates inflammation and would not help in this process (or any process that is for your health). You might want to also avoid anything with the ingreadient listins as high fructose corn syrup.

*Some  supplements that can  really help with getting off alcohol.

Ambrotose by Mannatech is one. I can get it for you. Buy through me, on line, or join their marketing company. This product has the only guaranteed blend of all eight polysaccarides. For a supply that could last 2 to 3 months, it will cost about $165.  Polysaccharides are for cell communication. For some reason, testimonials indicate that people drink less when they use this product, without intending to.

A great alternative that very well might have all the polysaccharides and definitely has a lot of other very supportive nutrients in it that Ambrotose doesn’t have in it, is called Pure Synergy. www.synergy-co.com. It will cost about $65 with tax and shipping, for a months supply. It seems to have every seaweed, mushroom herb and fruit in it that you ever heard to have healing effects…(only slightly exaggerated). If you could use both of these it would be ideal. This would also be a good drink for a person who wished to fast or preferred food form to pills for vitamin and mineral supplementation.

You really need a B complex, and essential oil. Krill oils are my favorite. Udo has a good brand of essential oils that is available at health food stores.

There is one more set of supplements I recommend wholeheartedly. It is for supporting your liver which has two phases of detoxing. These products are to support the two phases because the liver is key in this process, and weak after the abuse. You can only get them through a health professional.

*For a weak digestion;

If your digestion is weak which is often the case when alcohol has been used a lot, you will likely benefit from pro-biotics; these are the friendly bacteria that are an integral part of creating nutrients from your digested food so that you can utilize them.

*The brain:

The brain effects everything. Too much sugar, alcohol and stress, not to mention toxins, cause inflammation in the brain. Tumeric is one food form anti inflammatory. There are supplements designed to clear out toxins and curb inflammation in your brain.

Also, mood elevators can be induced in your brain by doing things you like, accomplishing things, being and sharing with people you enjoy, eating certain pleasurable things like chocolate (Raw is best nutritionally) and exercise. This is because they make you make endorphines. If you are addicted to a drug such as heroin, endorphine supplies in your brain may be seriously depleted so it takes much longer to reacreate that supply in your brain.

Also, neurotransmitters related to positive attitude, can be of help such as dopamine. Some may choose to have a doctor give them mood elevators while going off of alcohol to help ease the process. There are mild dopamine supplementations also available through a naturopath other integrative practitioners interested in alternatives that rely more on your bodies ability to metabolize.

Be strong, and live well!