Our bodies are built to adapt and survive. Even when we are feeling normal, or aren’t struggling with health concerns, our bodies can be silently compensating for deficiencies in our lifestyle. 

We can live with things like:

• Chronic allergies
• Inflammation 
• Disproportionate body fat to muscle mass
• Protein deficiencies 

For quite a while before our bodies force us to make necessary changes. 

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To kick off this week’s episode of the Health Made Simple Show, Dr. Bart shares some perfect clinical examples of ways dysfunction in the body can resonate in different ways: 

Example 1: 

A mother brought her 3-year-old daughter into the clinic to be assessed for chronic headaches that would last up to a week. After completing an initial assessment, it was determined she needed to improve circulation across her cervical spine. Once she received a cranial occipital treatment to taction out her muscles, she felt immediate relief. 

It’s important to remember that everything in our bodies is connected. Blockages or tension in the pelvis can resonate in the body as headaches or neck pain. Remember to always be considering the full picture.  

Example 2:

Two female patients are both the same age, height and weight. On the outside, they both look like similarly healthy women. However when they were assessed on the In-Body machine, their results were drastically different. One had a body fat percentage of 18% (in the “normal” range), while the other came in at 30%. 

When it comes to our health, we have to let the data (not our eyes) do the talking. Just because one doesn’t look overweight for example, doesn’t mean that they are functioning optimally. 

Example 3: 

A 50 year old female patient perpetually visits the clinic to help with her weight loss efforts. She’ll perpetually start a new exercise and diet routine, only to have to stop a short while later because the aches and pains will become unbearable (regressing her results). After analyzing her diet, she was prescribed to eliminate all dairy and gluten (aka inflammatory foods) for 30 days and see how she feels. Not even 14 days later, she had already started to feel a huge difference, and lost 7 whole lbs! She serves as an excellent reminder that healing starts in the kitchen. 

A large contributor to maintaining a healthy body fat percentage, is monitoring your protein intake. While it can be a sensitive topic to debate, Dr. Bart shares his philosophies surrounding protein, and how to maximize its benefits which includes:

• Consume 0.8% of your total body weight in protein daily. The average American diet is so carbohydrate heavy, this may be a challenge for some at first, but it is essential to giving your body the building blocks it needs to regenerate. 
• Ensure you are consuming complete proteins daily (i.e the protein source contains all 9 essential amino acids). Animal based proteins are generally the best source of complete proteins, however strategically combining plant based proteins can yield the same result. 
• Don’t consume more than 30-40g of protein in a singular sitting, to give your body the chance to absorb as much as possible before it is fully digested. 
• Increase your protein intake by consuming protein powder. When choosing what powder is right fo you, you have two choices: animal (whey) or plant based protein. Whey is technically the only complete powdered source of protein, but strategically combining plant based (like pea) powders with other complete sources of protein is a suitable alternative as well. Choose the option you think you will be most consistent with. 

The core philosophy behind successful healing don’t forget, is to listen to the data. By performing the right routine tests, we can get a clear picture of what is going on inside our mysterious bodies.

Two tests that are particularly useful in fighting inflammation are:

• CRP (an inflammatory marker that when scoring too high, indicates that there is too much vascular inflammation in the arterial system, a precursor for cardiovascular disease).
• Homocysteine (an inflammatory marker that indicates armenia in B vitamins. Scoring too high indicates a potential genetic metabolism dysfunction when processing these vitamins). 

Worried you may be suffering from chronic inflammation? Ask your medical practitioner to order these tests ASAP!

In the meantime, try the dairy and gluten free diet for 30 days, and see how YOU feel. Chances are, you’ll start feeling (and seeing!) the benefits in no time.

Medically reviewed and written by:

Dr. Bart Precourt

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