How to Manage and Mediate

Ditch GLUTEN!

Gluten gets most of its notoriety these days from Celiac's disease, but what not many people know is that gluten has been linked to many more auto-immune diseases. These days a majority of auto-immune disorders are caused by environmental factors, and your digestive system is one of the largest interfaces between you and your environment. This means that what you eat plays a critical role in your bodies functioning. Specifically, your digestive tract-- its your bodies first line of defense from the world and sometimes the lining of the gut can become leaky, making it susceptible to invaders. Apparently, for this reason, gluten is linked to nearly every auto-immune disease out there, so no matter what your symptoms are its wise to cut the gluten and allow your body to get back to its optimal immune health!

Eat the Rainbow!

A woman named Dr. Terry Wahls once had full blown multiple sclerosis, confining her to a wheelchair. She decided to dig into how diet impacts your body and found that following a simple, clean diet free from GLUTEN, CASEIN, and ALBUMIN reversed her symptoms! The rest of her diet known as the Wahls Protocol consists of eating a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, and sulfurous veggies like cauliflower. Eat fermented foods to support healthy gut flora, and grass-fed or freshly caught proteins.

Get Some Exercise!

According to research in The Journal of Strength  Conditioning and research, one good way to reduce whole body inflammation and help with insulin resistance is to get some exercise! Focusing on light to moderate aerobic intervals mixed with some strength training have been shown to reduce whole body inflammation. Performing these activities 3-5 times a week for 35-60 minutes will help to keep your immune response under control!

Yoga Meditation and Mindfullness

It's easy to get caught up in pessimistic and hopeless thoughts when your health starts mysteriously declining, but yoga and meditation can go a long way to help turn that frown upside-down. Performing certain yoga poses can stimulate and promote proper function of the organs which are being attacked by your immune system. Plow, fish, and cobra poses are good for thyroid. Performing sun salutations can be good for soothing arthritis. Camel, bridge and auspicious poses are helpful for lupus. Meditation and mindful breathing can help increase feelings of joy and hope, specifically by focusing inward and sending loving and healing thoughts to each part of your body!

Anti-inflammatory Foods!

Here is a list of foods that can help reduce inflammation throughout the body!
Olive oil and coconut oil
Nuts- walnuts
Fatty fish (omega3)
Leafy Greens and Bok Choy
Very colorful fruits and veggies-
berries, beets, carrots, broccoli, etc.
Pineapple
Chia and flax seeds
Turmeric and ginger
Green tea

Get a Full Nights Rest!

Research shows that getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep at night is very important to your whole bodies wellness, including your immune and inflammation responses. Interestingly, research has shown that both getting too little and too much sleep can be implicated with poor health. So ensuring that you are getting to bed on time and sleeping soundly are key to staying in optimal health!