Live Well Clinic

  By Dr. Sonja Fung, ND We all know how debilitating arthritis is in our life. It can be things like the inability to put on a shirt up to the inability to walk. But did you know that your digestive health can be a critical factor in the treatment of arthritis? Maintaining digestive health is key to the health of your body. Your intestines make up 70% of your immune system called GALT- Gut associated lymphatic tissue. For example, infection activates your immune system à intestinal immune cells present pieces of foreign cells to tell the rest of your body which cells to destroy à all your immune cells find and destroy the foreign cells à your body gets better and keeps you from getting sick next time. This is the normal function of your immune system. The question is, what happens when gut immunity breaks down? Intestinal inflammation causes a disruption of the integrity of your intestinal lining, thus allowing foreign cells and proteins to s...

By: Sephen Levine, Ph. D. Have you ever eaten something - a bowl of ice cream, a piece of cheese, an orange - and felt hungrier than before? Do you have urges for a particular food and find it hard to satisfy your craving unless you eat that particular food? If the answer is "yes" to either of these questions, then you have a food allergy. If you are also fat, then chances are your food allergy is making you fat. Food sensitivities may cause allergic people to crave those foods to which they are allergic. Just as a drug addict suffers withdrawal symptoms when the drug is withdrawn, allergic people experience discomfort when they lose access to a particular food. Obese people can testify to the overwhelming power of food allergy addiction. Compulsive eaters crave and continue to eat those allergenic foods to which they are addicted day after day. The obese person has no idea that his daily food cravings or eating habits are based on a physiological need to stop withdrawal symp...