Ok, so call me health obsessed. But the more you learn, the more you realize that none of us are really healthy. I’ve definitely plowed through my share of health and nutrition books in the past few years and I will probably continue to do so indefinitely. You just gain so much understanding that puts the average person’s knowledge to shame.
Recently I’ve been working my way through Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. It’s been something of an eye-opener. Campbell-McBride lays out pretty clearly how a healthy gut is necessary for a healthy body, healthy brain, and just general health. Our gut contains thousands of different bacteria that help digest foods, support immune and digestive functions, and manufacture various nutrients. When our gut flora gets out of balance many things can happen. We don’t digest our food properly and so start developing various vitamin and nutrient deficiencies. Pathogenic fungi and bacteria take over and produce toxins instead of beneficial byproducts. Our immune system becomes impaired and imbalanced. And in severe cases, the toxic overload and nutrient deficiency leads to abnormal brain development, hence the title Gut and Psychology Syndrome.
The book is mainly concerned with the autism spectrum disorders: Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, A.D.D., A.D.H.D., Depression, Schizophrenia, etc. Most of these can be cured or greatly relieved by following the GAPS diet and reversing gut dysbiosis. The diet will also cure or greatly relieve inflammatory bowel diseases such as Chron’s and lesser problems such as Candida overgrowth or consistently loose stools.
The problem is the diet is highly restrictive and has to be followed for a long time: 6 months to 2 years. And it’s hard to tell whether it’s necessary if you do not display any of the major symptoms, but there are some potential indicators.
First, physiological symptoms and history. I was a C-section birth and not a normal birth. This is important because a newborn baby has a sterilized gut which gets populated at birth (note, health of the mother is important at this point). It’s like Pasteurization: a sterilized environment not populated with beneficial bacteria pretty much opens the door for all pathogens. I had multiple ear infections with multiple courses of antibiotics at a year or two from birth. This pretty much labels me as a GAPS child although how that carries to my health status now at the age of 31 is tough to say. I have less than desirable stools and persistent toenail fungus. These are weaker indicators but still significant. I’ll up there importance somewhat since they are issues I’ve dealt with much of my life. I’ve been able to achieve good stools here and there but toenail fungus was only ever eradicated once with an anti-fungal (Diflucan).
Now psychological symptoms. I’d say I’ve been very prone to anxiety although much less so now. At one point I felt like I may have Asperger’s, but I tend to really doubt that now. My brother’s kind of the same way: high IQ, very smart, but not prone to be overly social. I don’t know if that’s a personality generalization or it truly fits on some “spectrum”. One more clear indication of potential GAPS symptoms in my family would be my brother’s Type 1 Diabetes (which is the result of an auto-immune disorder). GAPS can predispose people to autoimmune problems. Again, this is a weaker, more speculative indicator. I would assume that since I was a C-section birth, my brother would have to have been as well, as my understanding is normal births are not performed following C-sections. I could be wrong though.
My plan right now is the following. Do a fruit detoxifying cleanse. During a fruit cleanse all you eat is fruit. This should pump a lot of toxins out of the body and help perform some restorative action on the digestive tract. Hopefully this will normalize stools. This is a short term diet, possibly up to two weeks in length. In the meantime I will continue to study the GAPS diet as there are a lot of good nutritional components to it anyway. I’ll also try to come up with some lab tests I’ll be willing to plop down some money for: stool sample, mucous pH, Th1 vs. Th2… who knows. If I feel testing or continued symptoms warrant it, I may jump into the full GAPS diet, but that wouldn’t be for a few months yet.
If you are interested in learning more about GAPS, check out the websites:
http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/
http://www.gapsdiet.com/
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