Gut Health Blog

July 21, 2024

How to Deal With PCOS Belly Fat

Hello Everyone,

It can be challenging to flatten your tummy when you have hormonal and inflammatory conditions like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

In this article, I’m going to explain why it’s hard to lose belly fat when you have PCOS and share some of my best tips for dealing with this issue.

How to Deal With PCOS Belly Fat

Encourage Good Bacteria to Grow in Your Tummy

Move Every Day in The Right Way

What Is PCOS?

Many women have polycystic ovaries without having PCOS, but every woman with PCOS has polycystic ovaries. Let me explain… Each month, in the first half of the menstrual cycle, the ovaries develop follicles that contain eggs. One of these eggs will be released at ovulation and the remaining follicles will degenerate.

However, some women carry undeveloped follicles on the ovaries that look like bunches of grapes – these are polycystic ovaries. It is possible to have polycystic ovaries and not experience any symptoms but with PCOS, these cysts lead to hormonal imbalances and symptoms such as:

Irregular periods or no periods
Fertility problems
Problems with blood sugar balance and insulin resistance
Weight gain especially around the abdomen and belly
Acne
Headaches
Excessive hair growth on the face, back, and chest (hirsutism)
Thinning hair on the head

Tests may reveal elevated levels of luteinizing hormone and testosterone and low progesterone. There may also be problems with estrogen metabolism.

If not treated, PCOS can increase the risk of other conditions like obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, depression, infertility, and an accumulation of fatty tissue, particularly around the tummy area.

How to Deal With PCOS Belly Fat

PCOS belly fat accumulates as a result of insulin resistance and hormonal imbalance. It can be hard to shift, but it is worth tackling because this is the sort of fat that produces inflammatory chemicals which can make your PCOS symptoms even worse.

I recommend you follow a 4-step approach to deal with PCOS belly fat;

Support your gut microbiome.
Do the right kind of exercise and movement.
Get good quality sleep.
Learn how to manage stress.

Let’s look at each of these steps in turn.

Encourage Good Bacteria to Grow in Your Tummy

Many studies show increased levels of harmful bacteria and differences in the composition of the gut microbiome in women with PCOS. These shifts in microbial balance can be related to hormone metabolism and inflammation. The wrong types of bacteria can promote inflammation and “recycle” estrogen, leading to further estrogen imbalance.

You can support the healthy balance and diversity of your gut microbiome by eating gut-healthy food like this wonderful Flax & Chia Light Banana Bread or Slow-cooker Indian Vegetable Curry.

The Eat Burn Sleep food lists and meal plans are designed to encourage the growth of beneficial gut bacteria which in turn help with hormone metabolism and lowering inflammation. We have hundreds of recipes on the platform, all designed with your gut bugs in mind!

Move Every Day in The Right Way

Core strength exercises that improve your abdominal tone are great for dealing with belly fat. They really work! You can read more about these sorts of exercises in Best Exercises to Lose Belly Fat Quickly.

Daily movement and exercise are important when you have PCOS, but it’s important to steer clear of workout plans that are too demanding and stressful. I see people doing intense workouts and not eating properly before or afterward, and this is a surefire way to worsen PCOS symptoms.

Workouts that are too intense increase your stress hormones and inflammation. They have the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve.

The EBS membership includes access to our library of hundreds of movement videos that build muscle strength and help lower inflammation. I do these exercises myself daily, and I guarantee you will see the difference in your health.

Each routine takes half an hour or less – combine them with the food plan and you will see amazing changes, just like EBS Member Leila:

“I am on my 4th week of the 6-week reset, and I have PCOS.

Already I’ve seen amazing results and feeling much better and lighter in my body (and mind)!

Really impressed with the quality of your work and what you’ve put into this amazing platform.”

Get Good Quality Sleep

Sleep significantly affects your hormonal health and shouldn’t be underestimated. Do you sleep easily for 7-9 hours every night? If not, this is a key area to focus on if you want to be free from PCOS belly fat.

Lack of sleep affects your appetite and satiety hormones. When they are out of rhythm, you are likely to crave sugary foods and simple carbohydrates – things like sodas, pastries, candy, and other junk foods. Eating these sorts of foods when you have PCOS-related insulin resistance leads to more belly fat and more inflammation. I explore this further in What Happens If You Don’t Sleep Enough?

For insomniacs, shift workers, and people who have had a lifetime of waking up in the middle of the night we have Personalized Advice for Insomnia as part of the EBS membership. It’s a game-changer!

Reduce Stress

Stress plays a massive role in hormonal imbalance and inflammation. Stress hormones alter the balance of your gut bacteria, increase belly fat (high levels of cortisol lead to more fat storage around the belly area), and affect mental well-being. Chronic stress can lead to feelings of anxiety and depression which can make it harder to cope with PCOS.

So, please don’t despair if you have PCOS and a larger tummy than you would like because you can change it. You are not stuck with it for life.

We have many EBS members who have turned their PCOS around by following the EBS lifestyle. This is what Remi says about the program:

“After 3 years of sticking (mostly) to your food guide, I have healed my PCOS!

I just went in for hormone testing, and everything was completely normal for the first time in my life.”

We even have leading Endocrinologists who have benefited from the program, like Dr Mehreen Kahn:

“The lifestyle has helped me so much. I have PCOS and IBS/reflux. An added benefit for me is my cystic acne from PCOS just vanished. My 13-year-old acne is clearing up.

The bloat is gone, no more popping TUMS, and Gas-X and Omeprazole all the time. My tummy is flat for the first time since babies! I feel better at 40 (my birthday is tomorrow) than at 30. My hair is shinier, my nails are breaking less.”

So, are you ready to deal with PCOS belly fat? Check out our membership options now.

You might also enjoy:

Why Am I Always Hungry?

Does Cortisol Cause Weight Gain?

How Much Does Inflammation Affect Weight Loss?

Yours, in health,

Yalda x

Yalda Alaoui is a qualified Naturopathic Nutritionist (with a foundation in Biomedicine) who studied with the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London. She has spent over a decade performing groundbreaking research in chronic inflammation and gut health.

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Depression, Anxiety & Gut Health

What Is Gut Health?

Why You Have Psoriasis

October 08, 2023

Depression, Anxiety & Gut Health

Reducing Depression and Anxiety Naturally

Hello Everyone! It’s hard to believe that what you eat today and tomorrow may have you waking up feeling sad, anxious, or moody the next day.

The last thing you may be thinking about if you are prone to depression and anxiety is what you are eating. You could be reaching out for unhealthy options, overloaded with caffeine and sugar, and not sleeping well, too.

Getting through the day could feel like wading through mud, and you are doing whatever you can to get through it!

This post is about depression, anxiety, and how gut health is so powerful that it can help you tremendously. Small steps will help. Please do share with anyone who is suffering. It could be the lifeline they need.

Treating Depression Safely and Naturally

Lifestyle Factors and Depression

How Does Gut Health Reduce Depression?

What Changes Gut Health?

A Diet Rich in Anti-inflammatory Prebiotic Compounds

Anti-inflammatory Diets Are Neuroprotective

Exercise and Depression

Improve Brain Health

Treating Depression Safely and Naturally

Depression is the second most common cause of disease-induced disability. An estimated 280 million individuals suffer from depression, and many factors contribute to depression.

Some factors you cannot control, but two major factors that you can control are diet and lifestyle. It is safe, natural, and starts working quickly.

Studies show more and more that depression and anxiety can be treated naturally by changing what you eat and how much physical activity you do. Before we go any further, I don’t mean hitting the gym seven times a week! Far from it, actually.

As I have mentioned before in Come Off Antidepressants, medical students are now being taught to look at diet and lifestyle interventions for patients with symptoms of depression and anxiety as a first course of action.

In most cases, with a diet and lifestyle intervention for depression and anxiety, the symptoms go away.

I continually come across studies that back this up, but the proof to me, through studying the link between gut and mental health, is the number of Eat Burn Sleep members who have told me that their depression and anxiety have lifted. I know how I feel myself and how I felt before I studied gut health and changed what I ate and did each day.

Lifestyle Factors and Depression

Multiple lifestyle factors and depressed mood were studied by Sarris J., Thomson R., Hargraves R., et al. (2020). A cross-sectional analysis of 84,860 participants with major depressive disorder and those without depression showed that a healthy diet and optimal sleep duration were significantly associated with less frequency of depression.

Aguilar-Latorre, Oliván-Blázquez, Pérez Algorta, et al. (2023) conclude that health education and lifestyle modifications significantly reduce depression. The study included six weeks of health education on diet and lifestyle changes.*

The key is to continue the health education and the diet and lifestyle changes. Health education will teach behaviors that become automated. You start living an anti-inflammatory way without even thinking!

How Does Gut Health Reduce Depression?

Gut microbiota has critical roles in the immune system (70% of our immune system resides in our guts. GALT – gut-associated lymphoid tissue). It also has a role in the central nervous (brain and spinal cord) and endocrine systems (glands that make hormones, the body’s chemical messengers).

Behavior, mood, and response to stress can all be affected by gut bacteria because gut health affects the immune system, nervous system, and endocrine system.

These, in turn, all affect each other.

There’s more about the gut-brain axis and how the gut influences the brain and the brain influences the gut in this article: Depression Diet & Lifestyle Intervention.

Have you read How Do You Live With IBS and Anxiety? Do You Often Feel Like Crying? Why Are You Moody and Irritable?

You may enjoy listening to the podcast Using Sounds to Calm Your Mind with my guest Athena Ko, aka The Gong Girl, Food Additives & Your Microbiome with Dawn Sherling, and Emotional Health Strategy with Steve Burns.

What Changes Gut Health?

While gut microbiomes are unique to us, any change can upset the production of intestinal bacterial fermentation that regulates intestinal adaptive immune responses and affects the production of feel-good neurotransmitters.

If you eat meals laden with chemicals and compounds that the harmful bacteria in your gut like, you will help the harmful bacteria grow. They will tell your brain to seek more, too!

A bowl of prawn stew bursting with colour, topped with herbs. — Delicious Gut Loving Brazilian Prawn Stew.

If you give your gut microbiota foods that encourage good bacteria, they will grow! Then, these guys ask for more of the good stuff, too!

It’s not limited to food, though. Again, read the above article for more about depression, anxiety, and gut health.

Whatever you eat or do will put your gut in a healthy or unhealthy state.

An unhealthy state will dysregulate your immune, as mentioned, and increase chronic inflammation, which increases neuroinflammation (inflammatory response in the brain and spinal cord).

Carabotti, Scirocco, Masselli, and Severi (2015) noted the bidirectional relationship of the emotional and cognitive parts of the brain with peripheral intestinal functions.

Have you tried these gut health recipes yet?

Asian Chicken Soup With Konjac Noodles

Banana & Blueberry Nice Cream

A Diet Rich in Anti-inflammatory Prebiotic Compounds

Scientists Eliby D, Simpson C, Lawrence A, et al. (2023) examined the associations between diet quality and anxiety and depressive disorders. They looked at how diet can implicate mental health and concluded that diet interventions had consistently significant, positive effects on depressive symptoms.

Eliby, Simpson, Lawrence, et al. also noted the strong evidence that a diet rich in anti-inflammatory, prebiotic compounds and other lifestyle modifications provided a more integrative approach.

Anti-inflammatory Diets Are Neuroprotective

Indeed, further studies below recognize the benefits of a gut-health, anti-inflammatory diet.

An anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, prebiotic diet is associated with reduced rates of depression, as they are rich in a wide variety of bioactive compounds, minerals, vitamins, and so on, as stated by González R, Ballester I, López-Posadas R, et al. (2011).

The effects of an anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, prebiotic diet are demonstrated further in a study about the dietary intake and risk of incident depression in midlife and older women by Chang S-C, Cassidy A, Willet WC, et al. (2016).

In a study by Bienenstock J, Kunze W, Forsythe P, et al. (2015) on microbiota and the gut-brain axis, it was noted that diet could change the profile of gut microbiota and behavior. They quote that the effects of bacteria on the nervous system affect the immune system because they are in constant bidirectional communication.

Exercise and Depression

Exercising may be so far away from what you want to do when you are prone to depression and anxiety. The sofa or bed may seem a better option when you are depressed and anxious.

In a review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine by Singh B, Olds T, Curtis R et al. (2023) on the effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety, and distress, they looked at the evidence in 1039 trials, that included 128, 119 participants.

The conclusion was that physical activity is highly beneficial for improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress across a wide range of adult populations, including people with diagnosed mental health disorders and people with chronic diseases. The concluding remarks were: Physical activity should be a mainstay approach in managing depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.

Some exercises contribute to chronic inflammation, neuroinflammation, and depression, though. Follow the Movement Guide, Members.

Improve Brain Health

There’s no doubt that gut microbiota influences our brain health. Gut microbiota is impacted by physical exercise. And vice versa. Eating for gut health will improve your brain health.

Then, when you feel lifted, you will feel like starting those twenty/thirty-minute movements at home. Before you know it, you will be doing them daily alongside your gut-health diet and enjoying them.

Until one day soon, you can say that you are feeling so much better, and it continues. Life can feel brighter again daily.

Getting the synergy is essential, and it will happen.

*As the study mentioned above, lifestyle changes and health education for depression showed significant recovery. This health education platform and our nutritionists’ help in the forum are accessible every week of the year. Not just six!

Check this article about what an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle can do for you.

As always, I wish you good gut health and happiness!

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Yalda Alaoui

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How to Deal With PCOS Belly Fat

What Is Gut Health?

Why You Have Psoriasis

October 01, 2023

What Is Gut Health?

How Does Gut Health Affect Us

Hi Everyone! I talk about gut health all the time, as you know, and how it can change and lead to chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation.

There is still a lot of wonder about gut health, though. Why do we need good gut health? What exactly is gut health? Is gut health just another trend until the next health trend? Does gut health matter?

Gut health really matters! It is vital to good health. It isn’t a passing health trend.

It’s important that we all know how to make and keep our guts healthy. It is linked to chronic disease and to the leading cause of death.

It isn’t just food that we need to look at, although that’s a good place to start.

I hope that you will be as fascinated about these tummy bugs as I am. It’s amazing that they are imperative to good health. Read on and share!

What Is Gut Bacteria?

How Do You Get Good Gut Health?

Why Is Gut Health Trending?

How Do You Know If Your Gut Health Is Balanced?

What Is the Fastest Way to Improve Gut Health?

How Can You Improve Gut Bacteria?

How Do You Fix Gut Health ASAP?

Why Does Gut Bacteria Change?

How Can I Drastically Change My Health?

What Does Gut Bacteria Do?

The Causes of Bad Gut Health

What Are the Signs of an Unhealthy Gut?

What Meals Are Good for the Gut?

Why Do I Need Good Gut Health?

What Is Gut Bacteria?

Your gut health is the entire digestive system, running from your esophagus to your bowel, and it is full of microbes!

Your gastrointestinal tract harbors a complex colony of trillions of different microbes and thousands of species of gut bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites.

Suppose you can imagine this vast, industrial network of cell signaling and pathways with proteins, metabolites, peptides, etc., in the layers of the GI tract. In that case, you get a rough idea of the gut microbiome.

Most microbiota are symbiotic (which means that microbiota and the body benefit), and some are pathogenic (disease-promoting).

These microorganisms, which consist of viruses, fungi, protozoa, and microbiota, weighing in at around 4-5 lbs, all co-exist quite happily in a healthy person.

Our diverse gut microbiomes are paramount to good health.

How Do You Get Good Gut Health?

Your gut health started before you were born. That was when the first colonization occurred.

We got some from our mothers, who got their first exposure from their mother, who got hers from her mother, and so on.

Since the second we were born, we inherited and acquired trillions of bugs all over and inside us called microorganisms.

Our gut microbiome is unique to us, and it is there to protect us.

Some of our microorganisms are ancient because they have been passed down from mother to mother!

What they were exposed to was passed down, and so on.

This links to an intriguing report about the existence of ancient microbes in our microbiome by Dr. Rook, University College, London.

These trillions of microorganisms and their genes support critical functions, which has allowed us to evolve. In return, they get what they need to survive from us!

These ancient microbes prevented the body from attacking its tissues and resembled that of the natural environment.

Gut health is trending because it has been realized that good gut health is imperative to good health. Gut health is real and not a fad.

Please be warned about unqualified people on social media giving out gut health advice, gut health hacks, gut health weight loss tips, and so on. You could damage your gut health and open up your body to the risk of disease. I always advise that you take gut health nutrition and gut health diet advice from a qualified gut health expert/nutritionist/doctor who has studied gut health.

So, gut health is not a passing health trend. I have spent years studying gut health and chronic inflammation, and it is crucial to good health.

How Do You Know If Your Gut Health Is Balanced?

A balanced microbiota stimulates the immune system and synthesizes amino acids and vitamins. It also assists in breaking down toxic compounds, providing protection from organisms that enter the body through contaminated food and drink.

You would know about it if your gut health is unbalanced. Once you know how to look after your gut health, when it becomes unbalanced, you will feel it.

What Is the Fastest Way to Improve Gut Health?

In the past, we lived under timber and close to dung and thatch. We had pantries, not refrigeration. Bacteria were more abundant, and we were exposed to them more than they are today.

Nowadays, our homes are made with manufactured products, people clean too much, and there are chemicals everywhere!

We miss that connection to the past and do not have the microbiota to deal with these extremely clean environments.

Unless we live on a farm in a natural environment or with pets! (If you think of the powers of earthing and maximizing our exposure to nature and our connection to early antioxidants).

Having good hygiene is important to avoid infections, but too much is not good for your health.

The Lifestyle Guide has more gut health information. It will help you look after your gut health, keep sickness and disease at bay, and have you feeling fantastic – every day! Start with the potent, popular 6-week Reset.

How Can You Improve Gut Bacteria?

You can improve your gut bacteria by following an anti-inflammatory lifestyle that has a focus on gut health.

Exposure is key to protection!

If we are never exposed to something, we won’t have the bugs to deal with it when we do. This is why if you have never come across a certain germ and then you are suddenly exposed to it, your body reacts.

It’s all about diversity, remember. Your good bacteria will thrive if you do something that encourages it.

So, the first exposure is entirely down to our mother’s/DNA species of microbiota but also depends on how we are delivered into the world. Vaginally delivered (and position), we have microbiota resembling our mother’s vagina microbiota. C-sections would harbor microbes from a mother’s skin.

The microbiota we were born with is not very diverse but soon alters as we adapt to our surroundings so that we can digest the food we are given and deal with germs and what is around us. This cultivates a diverse, anti-inflammatory microbiome.

A baby in America is exposed to different bugs than a baby in Europe, for instance.

As we go through life, as we have changing environments, lifestyle habits, and so on, gut health corresponds with how you live.

So, if we feed the good bacteria with good nutrients, they thrive. If we feed it with damaging foods, then the damaging bacteria grows. They, in fact, like anything living, will want to survive and send signals to your brain for more damaging foods! They are that powerful!

How Do You Fix Gut Health ASAP?

We have bacteria all over us as the first line of defense – on our skin, in our airways, and in our guts. If we don’t give the bad bacteria any reason to grow, we stay healthy.

Gut bacteria become harmful when a healthy diversity is not encouraged. This affects the immune system, and ruins the line of defense, and that is when we are susceptible to disease. See the list of reasons below why gut bacteria change.

You can fix gut health ASAP by joining our gut health community!

Why Does Gut Bacteria Change?

Gut bacteria change with everything we do and are exposed to.

Exposure in infancy protects a child from developing weakened immune systems later in life that are sensitive to pollen, benign germs, and dust.

Likewise, exposure to chemicals in infancy can affect these gut microbiota. Did you read: Why Aspartame is Linked to Cancer? Exposure to aspartame is linked before you are born if your mother drank aspartame-laden drinks without knowing about the dangers. It has only been exposed as a carcinogen recently, despite scientists crying out for it to be banned for decades!

There are more risks of being susceptible to chronic inflammatory conditions and autoimmune diseases later in life without the correct quantity and quality of germs in childhood.

It’s really important to be exposed and not shielded unless it is chemicals!

Have you read Low-calorie Foods for Weight Loss and listened to my chat with Dr. Dawn Sherling on Food Additives & Your Microbiome and about The Behavioral Immune System with Nick Potter?

I talk all the time about how medication can cause gut dysbiosis and keep you in a perpetual state of sickness, so to speak. I found this out when I was researching what was wrong with me and how I could fix myself with two autoimmune diseases. Read NSAIDs, Gut Health & Inflammation.

So, everything we are exposed to as we grow, along with our diets, habits, and environment, shapes our microbiota communities. This bug community can change the body into a healthy state or one at greater risk of disease.

Mental and physical health change bacteria. Stress and depression can change your gut bacteria. The wrong exercise can change it, too.

Being with people has an effect on gut bacteria.

Sleep affects gut bacteria! If you don’t get good quality regular sleep, your gut health will be affected. Have you read Weight Loss and The Link To Sleep?

And vice versa! It all works symbiotically together.

How Can I Drastically Change My Health?

You can drastically change your health by joining this anti-inflammatory lifestyle.

Your gut health will improve dramatically, and the benefits are astounding.

You see, some bacteria in your gut may grow depending on what you are exposed to and what you eat. Others may disappear or shrink, which influences the immune system in the gut and in our adaptive immune system.

There’s a whole array of activities involving antigens, innate cell types, neutrophils, T cells, and B cells, for instance, that go on in the gut that displays how the microbiota has a profound effect on both the innate and adaptive immune system. A study by Wu & Wu (2012) explains it in detail.

Microbiota can change or become fixed due to being too hygienic, even.

Having a low microbial load due to being too clean in modern life can have a powerful effect on our immune response because it will either not be tolerant or will create inflammation.

What Does Gut Bacteria Do?

Our composition of microbiota has a crucial influence on our health. As I mentioned, it aids nutrient metabolism, breaks down toxic compounds, and protects against contaminated food and drink. It also ensures that the gut barrier is strong.

Indeed, our microbiota is an intrinsic regulator of immune responses.

Gut microbiota plays a vital role in the development of immune homeostasis, including the development of gut-associated lymphoid tissues.

70-80% of immune cells (Gut-associated Lymphoid Tissue) reside in the gut. GALT is an essential component in protecting the body from pathogens. In fact, studies show that it is microbiota from before we are born that is involved in generating innate immunity during growth and development.

Gut microbiota and gut-associated lymphoid tissue are essential players in the pathogenesis of various diseases.

The Causes of Bad Gut Health

An unbalanced microbiota results in gut dysbiosis, leading to chronic disease through (but not limited to):

*An unhealthy diet, including calorie-restrictive and extreme diets (not all popular diets are good for you!)
*A compromised immune system (you can be born with or acquire a weakened immune system)
*Overstimulated bowel functions (malnutrition through inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn’s, colitis, and diverticulitis)
*Older age (influenced by personal factors)
*Lifestyle
*Obesity
*Medication (often to ‘treat’ disease causes more disease)
*Antibiotics (wipe out a gut microbiota richness and diversity within four days)
*Recurring bouts of acute inflammation (pneumonia, viruses: colds, flu, Covid)
*Auto-inflammatory diseases
*Stress
*Illness (a vicious cycle)
*Environment (toxins, cleaning products, plastics, solvents, pesticides, cigarette smoke, mercury, and so on)
*Sleep deprivation
*Certain exercises
*Isolation (not socializing significantly alters gut microbiota).

What Are the Signs of an Unhealthy Gut?

Dysbiosis (when an altered interaction between immune cells and microbiota occurs) makes the body susceptible to disease. It increases intestinal permeability (leaky gut syndrome) and opens up the chronic inflammation pathway!

When you realize how gut microbiota can get unbalanced, and contributing factors like highly processed and calorie-controlled diets, along with other factors mentioned above, you can see the link with the rise in chronic inflammatory diseases like obesity, diabetes, depression, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.

There are currently, 10 percent of the population with autoimmune diseases, and 78% of deaths worldwide are linked to chronic inflammation.

It seems that everyone has conditions that are related to the gut microbiome!

A woman in exercise gear with a measure tape around her waist, indicating weight loss. — Member’s results of living the EBS Gut-healthy Anti-inflammatory Lifestyle.

What Meals Are Good for the Gut?

You can find 300+ gut-health recipes when you sign up for this gut-health diet and lifestyle. They are globally inspired, so you get to travel around the world while you are making yourself super healthy, too! Try these taster dishes: Moroccan Burgers, Sicilian Eggplants, Asian Chicken Soup With Konjac Noodles, Mediterranean Roast Chicken & Vegetables, and Coconut & Cacao Loaf.

Why Do I Need Good Gut Health?

Having good gut health not only protects you from disease but can help you age well and keep you looking and feeling young, as long as you incorporate other lifestyle factors. Good gut health assists in looking after your skin, hair, eyes, mood, and cognition, and it helps relationships! It’s true.

If you have good gut health, you are most likely to be a better friend, and seeing people that you love spending time with is good for gut health, too. As I mentioned above, staying social is important for your gut health and immune health!

The wonderful thing is, is that with the right manipulation, you can make your gut microbiome into a healthy, diverse community.

You just need the right tools!

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Yalda Alaoui

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How to Deal With PCOS Belly Fat

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August 27, 2023

Why You Have Psoriasis

Triggers of Psoriasis Flare-ups

Hello Everyone! I hope that you are well. For this post, I am covering psoriasis since many people wonder why they have psoriasis all of a sudden or want to know what psoriasis triggers are and why medication only works temporarily.

Treating psoriasis at its source is essential since it can also run alongside other conditions. A small patch of psoriasis can indicate you should take action before it leads to other conditions.

Depression, obesity, arthritis, and many other conditions can run alongside psoriasis. I will explain.

What Is Psoriasis?

What Triggers Psoriasis?

Diseases Associated With Psoriasis

Should I Ignore a Small Psoriasis Patch?

What Medication Works for Psoriasis?

How to Treat Psoriasis

What Is Psoriasis?

If you wonder what psoriasis is and why you have psoriasis, it is good to understand what it is. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune condition affecting 2-3% of the world’s population. Psoriasis is not contagious, but none of us are immune, regardless of age.

In the immune system, T-cells hunt invading foreign pathogens and provide antibody responses to keep the body healthy. With psoriasis, the T-cells see parts of the skin as foreign and start to attack it, leading to an overproduction of new T-cells, white blood cells, and skin cells.

An overactive immune system creates inflammation in the body!

This pile-up of skin cells appears on the skin in itchy, swollen, red, purple, salmon-colored (depending on how light or dark your skin is), thickened patches with silvery scales. It can be mild, moderate, and severe, affecting people psychologically and physically.

There are many types of psoriasis, including:

• Plaque Psoriasis is the most common and can be on all body parts.
• Guttate Psoriasis – Small bumps that cover the body, usually in children recovering from an infection.
• Inverse Psoriasis – Appears in folds, like the buttocks, armpits, layers of fat on the stomach, underneath the breasts, and in the groin.
• Nail Psoriasis – Nail pits, nail separation, and soreness around the nail.

There are also rare and life-threatening psoriasis conditions like Pustular (pus-filled bumps) and Erythrodermic (looks like extensive burns accompanied by fever, chills, and dehydration) that require immediate medical attention.

What Triggers Psoriasis?

• Chronic inflammation conditions
• Being overweight (obesity is a chronic inflammatory condition. Psoriasis can start in skin folds, so obesity puts you more at risk)
• Leaky Gut Syndrome.
• Bacteria – Candida albicans, strep B, Hepatitis C, Herpes, etc.
• Stress – prolonged stress makes the immune system overactive and increases inflammation in the body
• Medication – interferon, lithium, beta-blockers, antimalarials, antifungals, and steroid cream, for instance
• Poor diet – insufficient nutrition, extreme dieting, and an abundance of ultra-processed foods. Good gut health is imperative for good health.
• Not enough good quality sleep – increases inflammation and jeopardizes immunity
• Unhealthy lifestyle – smoking, drinking, recreational drugs, and not enough exercise
• Hormones – hormonal changes increase inflammation
• Injuries to the skin, like friction, scalding, radiation, and ultraviolet rays
• Genes
• Weather temperature. It has been noted that the cold weather can be a psoriasis trigger, but this could be because of a lack of sunshine. (Some things may be beyond our control, but if you follow the personalized advice for treating psoriasis, you will reduce and, most likely, put psoriasis into remission. See below).

You may be interested in reading What Kills Candida Fast, Naturally?

Diseases Associated With Psoriasis

One in three people develop what is known as psoriatic arthritis due to sustained inflammation in the body. Still, any chronic inflammation running consistently in the body heightens other health risks.

Sustained inflammation affects every part of you!

You are more susceptible to inflammatory bowel disease, digestive issues, obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, diabetes, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, chronic fatigue, alopecia, thyroid, and respiratory diseases when you have inflammation running consistently.

You may be interested in reading Fatty Liver Diet: How to Look After Your Liver and How To Ease Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME.

Should I Ignore a Small Psoriasis Patch?

Even if psoriasis only affects less than 3% of your skin, you shouldn’t ignore it. It would be hard to since a small patch can cause itchiness and emotional distress. Even a tiny patch on the elbow or your hand is a sign that chronic inflammation is running in your body and needs to be lowered.

You may be interested in reading Signs of Inflammation That May Surprise You and How to Silence Hidden Inflammation.

What Medication Works for Psoriasis?

I always advise talking with your doctor about any health issue you may have. I have consulted with numerous doctors and specialists throughout my health journey.

Medication can save lives, and certainly seek immediate medical care for psoriasis that appears as pus-filled bumps or a large burn that accompanies chills, fever, and dehydration in your body.

In the long run, medication doesn’t treat the source, stops working after a while, and causes gut dysbiosis, leading to more chronic inflammation. This is a perpetual cycle and does not stop the condition. Medication and topical creams can make the condition worse.

Many drugs come with other side effects, too. Immunosuppressant medicines that are often given for psoriasis actually weaken the immune system, thereby heightening the risk of infections and diseases.

Did you see these posts?: Side Effects of Antibiotics: Another Cause of IBD and NSAIDS, Gut Health & Inflammation.

How to Treat Psoriasis

Chronic inflammation means a dysregulated immune system, which is what happens with psoriasis.

If you reduce inflammation, you can put psoriasis into remission.

Even if it is genetic, you can change genetic expression!

Start here as soon as you can to reduce chronic inflammation and psoriasis. You will reset your body and lose weight if obesity is an issue, reduce pain if you have joint pain, sleep better, and so on. Personalized advice for psoriasis is here for premium members.

Try these delicious psoriasis-friendly recipes: Persian Chicken Stew with Dried Plums & Cherry & Almond Clafoutis.

I advise you to take a picture of your psoriasis before you start and see the difference in 6 weeks! (It took just 14 days for our member, Michelle, to see a significant difference. Check the testimonials!).

Please share your success with me by sending me a DM on Instagram.

Have an amazing day, Everyone!

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June 25, 2023

Long COVID Migraines

How to Reduce Headaches Linked With Long COVID

Hi Everyone! It seems that one of the significant late neurological manifestations from having COVID-19 is intense headaches with chronic pain that is resistant to easily accessible pain medications.

According to many studies, Long COVID headaches were observed in women over 39; half had never experienced headaches before COVID-19, and those with a history of headaches reported worsening pain after COVID-19. People with Long COVID migraine state that they have them 2-5 times a week, which is debilitating!

If you have Long COVID and disabling headaches are among your symptoms, this post may relieve you greatly.

Long COVID Symptoms

How is Inflammation Connected to Long COVID Migraines?

Why Are Your Migraines Different Than Before COVID?

Why Migraine Meds Don’t Work

How Do You Treat Migraines?

Long COVID Symptoms

Most people recovered from COVID-19 and continued their regular lives, but symptoms have debilitated many.

There were more vulnerable people, after all, since if somebody had an existing inflammatory disease, they were at high risk. Many people have silent inflammation running, which can be surprising!

Headaches were one of the most common symptoms that ran alongside COVID-19; for some, they never went away and got worse. If you have Long COVID, migraines may not be your only symptom. Some of our members who had Long COVID have stated (in the Testimonials) that they used to have:

• Migraines
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Obesity
• Bloating
• IBS
• Anemia
• Chronic stress
• Joint pain
• Muscle pain
• High blood pressure
• Breathlessness
• No energy
• Exhaustion
• Loss of taste/smell
• Insomnia
• Brain fog
• Memory issues
• Less focus and concentration
• Worsened existing conditions
• Continual viruses
• Heartburn
• Stomach cramps
• Diarrhea
• Skin rashes

With inflammation implicating Long COVID and Long COVID causing more inflammation, which causes the immune system to be dysregulated, this would explain why Long COVID symptoms went away for our members.

By reducing inflammation and boosting immunity through improving gut health, liver health, anti-inflammatory movement, stress reduction, other neuroplasticity exercises, and better quality consistent sleep, they can live a regular life again.

It also explains why Long COVID symptoms persist if you are not on an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle.

How is Inflammation Connected to Long COVID Migraines?

Numerous studies show an increase in inflammatory markers in Long COVID patients, as shown here: Interleukin 1, Interleukin 6, and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) cytokines are associated with Long COVID.

Cytokines are a protein that increases inflammation as part of the innate immune response. Levels can increase to incredibly high levels after having COVID-19. These are all powerful pro-inflammatory agents!

This is why migraines may not be the only symptom you suffer from. In fact, migraines are often reported alongside chronic inflammation conditions.

Chronic inflammation and immunological alterations with cytokine storms running all the time like this will do that!

It will switch on anything hereditary, leaving you at risk of developing chronic conditions like autoimmune diseases and picking up viruses quickly. You may enjoy reading How to Recover from Virus Infections, Can Food Poisoning Cause Inflammation? and How to Boost Your Immunity to Fight Viruses.

Why Are Your Migraines Different Than Before COVID?

Through studies, people who have Long COVID migraines state that they are different from any headaches that they have had previously.

Since most people with migraines already have elevated inflammation, any further inflammation can cause changes since chronic inflammation stimulates pain-causing nerves and other processes that can affect migraines.

People also report that stress and anxiety have increased due to the challenges of having more migraines. Trying to navigate daily activities, life, work, school, social occasions, holidays, vacations, and relationships when you don’t know when an attack will occur has a considerable physical and mental impact.

One migraine a week would be challenging, but a Long COVID migraine causes up to five a week, it states in one study. 3 out of 4 reported spending time alone in a dark room without noise for 6+ hours on each attack and then dealing with the after-effects.

Stress and anxiety promote a never-ending cycle of inflammation.

Stress induces many changes in the brain and body, like increasing gut permeability and a leaky gut, reshapes gut composition and triggers pathogenic bacteria, activates our immune system, and increases inflammation, increasing neuroinflammation.

This will alter the gut-brain axis because of the bidirectional link between the gut and the brain. Briefly, what goes on in the gut goes on in the brain and vice versa. (If you think about how you get butterflies in your tummy or need to go to the bathroom before speaking in public or before an event, this is the brain-gut connection).

It would be no surprise to feel low and anxious when you have a debilitating condition, but gut bacteria imbalance and inflammation actually increase the chances of depression & anxiety (neuroinflammation).

Some gut bacteria actually encourage dysregulated eating!

Stressful times can also influence your diet and lifestyle choices, which affects gut health and increases inflammation. Have you seen the Live Masterclass on Emotional Eating recently?

Let’s not forget how sleep quality changes during stressful times. Gut imbalances mean less serotonin production, too, which is the precursor to melatonin, which enhances sleep (and happiness!). There are so many reasons to reduce inflammation through gut health!

These articles may interest you: Weight Loss and The Link to Sleep & What Happens if You Don’t Sleep Well?

Why Migraine Meds Don’t Work

Firstly, medications have saved millions of lives!

It has been recognized, though, that severe headaches are one of the major debilitating symptoms of Long COVID that are resistant to over-the-counter pain medication.

Ultimately, medications can cause damage to our gut health by reducing good bacteria and increasing harmful bacteria, like antibacterial resistance genes, for instance.

The gut lining may also become perforated, and pathogens can leak into the bloodstream.

Steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that are given for migraines drive inflammation through gut dysbiosis.

You may want to read: NSAIDs, Gut Health & Inflammation & Painkillers Not Helping your Headaches?

Diarrhea that our members said they used to have (without the condition of IBD) can be because of the medication they were taking, for instance. They reported an increase in taking anti-inflammatory drugs with Long COVID migraines due to the occurrence, length of time, and pain intensity but have not had much relief.

This is because NSAIDs increase gut imbalance. For one, the pathogenic Clostridium difficile bacteria grows. This causes diarrhea. It lives in our gut under the control of beneficial gut bacteria, but a gut imbalance encourages its growth.

Plus, certain headaches are resistant to medication, like Refractory migraine.

How Do You Treat Migraines?

Understanding gut health and brain health will help you with Long COVID migraines and many other disorders. Eat Burn Sleep’s health education will empower you because you will get to know how your body works in an easy way.

Second-nature choices occur the more you learn and the more you do for your health with our tools on this platform.

Enjoy meals like Bolognese Sauce & Kung Pao Chicken.

In time, you don’t need to reach for painkillers; you have reduced stress in your mind and body, better body composition, and good quality sleep, for instance. In time, life will be less challenging, and you can plan and be spontaneous.

Your migraines may just be reduced considerably in a matter of days. Our member Jewel reported relief on day 1 of being on the program after three weeks of continual headaches (check out the COVID testimonials). Members indeed feel the instant changes in many ways, but I would allow for longer and start the Six Week Reset for a next-level health reboot.

Taking charge of your health through health education and taking control where you can is key.

Members, access the personalized advice for Long Covid Recovery here and Migraines are in the same section.

I am wishing you good health and a good day!

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June 04, 2023

Anti-cancer Diet: Recovery and Prevention

Aiding Recovery and Prevention of Cancer

Hi Everyone! This post is about an anti-cancer diet and lifestyle that may aid in the recovery and prevention of cancer. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 30-50% of all cancer cases are preventable.

WHO has stated that dietary and lifestyle factors, physical inactivity, and being overweight significantly contribute to cancer.

Even people with ‘cancer genes’ may not develop cancer without dietary and lifestyle insults that turn healthy cells into abnormal cells that thrive in an inflamed microenvironment.

You can help yourself and your family to be more protected against cancer by living in an anti-inflammatory, gut-healthy way. By reading on, you can learn why an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle may help you prevent and reduce an environment for tumor cells to survive and grow.

What Diet Helps Prevent Cancer?

How Is Inflammation Linked to Cancer?

Are Genetic Cancers Common?

How Can You Reduce Cancer With a Diet?

How Can Lifestyle Change Gut Health?

Infections and Cancer

Weight Loss Will Protect Against Cancer

Stress and Cancer

Personalized Advice for Cancer Prevention and Recovery

What Diet Helps Prevent Cancer?

An anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle will not only encourage weight loss (obesity is one of the leading causes of cancer) but may help prevent and reduce the chances of tumor growth because tumor cells survive where chronic inflammation exists.

Targeted at gut health, an anti-inflammatory diet promotes good bacteria diversity, regulates inflammation, and provides anti-tumoral effects in gut bacteria.

For instance, as one example, some bacteria can stimulate cancer formation by blocking immune cells that usually inhibit the growth of tumors.

Unhealthy food, chemicals, additives, lack of exercise and sleep, being overweight, stress, toxins, alcohol, smoking, and pollutants are some factors that increase pro-inflammatory cytokines, inflammatory enzymes, adhesion molecules, chemokines, and so on.

Read: Why Aspartame Is Linked to Cancer.

Living an anti-inflammatory lifestyle will provide you with more protection; the sooner you start, the better. We need to educate our younger loved ones!

How Is Inflammation Linked to Cancer?

Inflammation has powerful effects on not only the development of cancer but also the spreading of cancer because it allows tumor cell survival.

A chronic inflammation microenvironment causes DNA damage and cell mutation, allowing tumor cell survival and growth.

Microbial pathogens are known to drive the growth of tumors, and many malignancies are associated with gut health imbalance.

Inflammation can exist in the body without symptoms for a long time. You may be interested in reading Signs of Inflammation That May Surprise You and How to Silence Hidden Inflammation.

Are Genetic Cancers Common?

According to Cancer Research UK, it doesn’t mean you have a cancer gene if you have relatives with cancer.

Cancers from inherited genes are less common than you may think (5-10%). Most cancers develop because of our environment, diet, lifestyle, and chance, not because of specific genetic inheritance.

Inherited genes usually have a pattern. The more relatives with the same or similar cancer, and the younger they were at diagnosis, the stronger the chances of a family history of cancer are.

Inherited genes mean you have a higher risk of developing diseases, but further gene changes need to happen for cancer to develop.

I always advise making your body less inflammatory, even if you don’t have apparent symptoms or non-communicable diseases that run in the family. 78% of deaths are linked to chronic inflammation.

How Can You Reduce Cancer With a Diet?

According to The Lancet, more than 19 million new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2020 worldwide. By 2040, that burden is expected to increase to around 30 million new cancer cases annually.

Cancer is a disease caused by many factors, including diet, lifestyle, immune response, hormones, stress, genetics, and environment.

When you consider WHO’s statement that 30-50% of cancer cases are preventable, you can better bolster against cancer by looking at the factors of diet, lifestyle, stress, etc. It is hard to escape chemicals and toxins because they are everywhere, but tobacco, alcohol, and obesity remain the leading causes.

What we feed ourselves has a significant impact on the risk of disease.

Focusing on gut health to reduce inflammation and boost immunity is a great place to start if you don’t smoke and drink in moderation.

Obesity is a chronic inflammatory condition, which is treated with this anti-inflammatory lifestyle, as well as better protection from cancer.

If you think about tumor cells needing an inflammatory environment to grow, reducing inflammation gives them less chance of survival.

A powerful anti-inflammatory technique involves the bacteria in your gut.

The bacteria in your gut have the unique ability to reduce inflammation, as well as strengthen your immunity, and reduce metabolic, infectious, and chronic diseases. The bacteria in your gut can even lessen genetic expression (epigenetics) if certain cancers do run in your family.

Gut bacteria also promote regular, quality sleep by producing serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters, which assist your body in optimum health! (The production of serotonin and dopamine will also aid your mental health).

It’s astonishing what balancing your gut bacteria will do for you mentally and physically! The power of those microbes in your gut should not be underestimated!

Plus, eating a wide variety of the proper nutrients daily in your anti-cancer diet that work synergistically together will prevent cellular stress, boost immunity, and reduce fat cell composition, as they aid in inhibiting inflammation and optimizing health.

If you eat anti-inflammatory foods predominantly, you can get away with having pro-inflammatory foods occasionally. A more detailed anti-cancer diet and recovery protocol are in the personalized advice. You can access that section here or click on the link below.

In case you missed these posts: What Foods Help With Cancer Prevention and Recovery?, How Can You Prevent and Treat Cervical Cancer?

How Can Lifestyle Change Gut Health?

Of course, the bacteria in your gut cannot change your lifestyle, but your lifestyle can change your gut bacteria.

(However, those bugs in your tummy have the power to let your brain know what it needs to survive. Good food or junk food, feed it, and it will grow and want more! Yet, you can soon change it around).

So, your gut bacteria changes if there are any stressors, and it becomes less diverse, increasing inflammation and dysregulating the immune system. If you are exposed to smoke, pollution, or lots of chemicals, these will change your bacteria, reduce immunity, and keep inflammation high.

Diet, lifestyle, and immune system are among the factors that influence microbiota composition and activity.

You may enjoy the post: The Benefits of Sun Exposure, which includes how to sunbathe safely to avoid skin cancer. Did you know that too little sunshine can be detrimental to other cancers?

Infections and Cancer

Cancers are linked to infections like hepatitis, H-pylori, and HPV.

During infection and bacterial overgrowth, bacterial pathogens can expand and release toxins when the gut is affected by dysbiosis (imbalance).

These toxins cause DNA breakdown, which can contribute to DNA mutations, tumor initiation, and the progression of cancer cells.

Your immunity is improved with less inflammation in your body because chronic inflammation is a dysregulation of the immune system.

You may be interested in reading How to Recover From Virus Infections.

Members, reduce bacterial overgrowth by following the advice for candida and h-pylori here.

Weight Loss Will Protect Against Cancer

Cancer Research UK states that obesity is the cause of 13 different types of cancer, and having a healthy diet overall, which will reduce weight, can reduce the risk of cancer.

Members, you can kickstart weight loss on the 6-week Reset. Large amounts of weight can be lost initially, and then weight reduces continuously, daily, as optimal health returns. The beautiful thing is that it is safe and nutritious and heals your chronic inflammatory condition and symptoms. There are no health risks, and it isn’t temporary. Not many weight loss schemes can say the same!

Read: Low-calorie Foods for Weight Loss & How Can You Lose a Lot of Weight Fast?

Stress and Cancer

Chronic stress over some time can cause gastrointestinal disorders, which lead to gut dysbiosis, which leads to inflammation and dysregulation of the immune system.

It can cause anxiety and depression and increase the risk of developing diseases, including cancer.

Excessive stress hormones also prevent immune cells from effectively controlling cancer cells by increasing inflammation and suppressing immunity.

Not all things that cause stress are controllable, I know, but there are many ways to reduce stress that will aid in dealing with uncontrollable stress-related incidences.

For instance, stress worsens if you don’t eat or drink well, get little sleep, and exercise. Have you heard my conversation with Dr. Tamsin Lewis on the links between mental health and physical health?

Personalized Advice for Cancer Prevention and Recovery

New members, check the Lifestyle Guide on how to navigate this lifestyle, which will aid in stress reduction profusely. Also, check the personalized advice on depression and anxiety.

Please check the Personalized Advice section on what else to do for Cancer Prevention and Recovery.

Or, if you would like to have a confidential 15-minute Zoom consultation with me, please book it here.

Non-members, here are some taster recipes: Egg Muffins: Sweet Potatoes, Carrots & Chives & Asian Chicken Soup With Konjac Noodles.

You may also like to visit the podcasts section. A host of subjects are covered with my wonderful guests, including cancer survival, stress reduction, food additives and your microbiome, mental health, mindset tips, and the immune system.

While the evidence continues accumulating about cancer protection and reduction with an anti-cancer diet and lifestyle, following the Eat Burn Sleep way of eating, moving, thinking, reducing stress, and sleeping will likely help (check the reviews)!

After all, there is a strong correlation between not paying attention to what we eat and how we live, which causes chronic inflammation and cancer risk. Taking into account that cancer cells love an inflammatory microenvironment.

Please look after yourself.

As always, I wish you well.

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May 14, 2023

How to Ease Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diet

Hello Everyone! Chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), has been a somewhat mysterious disease since the 1930s. Still, recent scientific studies connect the dots and reveal what may help restore chronic fatigue.

For this post, I refer to the studies by Montoya et al. (2017), Williams et al. (2021), and Missailidis et al. (2019), as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If you have (or know anyone with) ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I am sure you will feel some relief knowing there’s been some headway in identifying underlying causes. Spread the word!

Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Real?

How Does ME Develop?

Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

How Do You Treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

What Do Changes in Tummy Bacteria Do?

What Is a Good Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME Diet?

Support for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME

Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Real?

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), is real.

It’s been around since 1930, and its prevalence is rising. The disease incidence at the beginning of the 20th Century was around 2 cases per 100,000 population. The 21st Century brings an estimated 30-50 cases per 100,000 population.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME can be found in all ages and races, and according to many international studies, it seems more prevalent in women.

For some, it may be chronic and disabling, with numerous symptoms like sleep problems, depression, and malaise.

How Does ME Develop?

Countless studies have been conducted to ascertain how Chronic Fatigue Syndrome develops. They are continuing, as it is not yet fully understood. Still, the links with inflammation, gut bacteria, stress which increases inflammation, and autoimmune disease, a chronic inflammatory condition, are increasing.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention lists possible causes:

Immune System Changes – ‘It is possible that ME/CFS is caused by a change in the person’s immune system and how it responds to stress. ME/CFS shares some features of autoimmune diseases, as they are more common in women and characterized by increased inflammation.’

Stress – ‘Cortisol levels lead to an increase in inflammation and chronic activation of the immune system.’

Infections, changes to energy production, and genes have all been linked by scientists.

This study by Montoya et al. (2017) links inflammation:

Cytokine measures from people with and without the condition were undertaken to determine whether inflammation could be associated with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and correlated with disease severity and fatigue duration.

‘Of the 17 cytokines that correlated with severity, 13 were found to be proinflammatory, likely contributing to many of the symptoms experienced by patients and establishing a strong immune system component of the disease.’

More research links to evidence of common denominators of disturbances to immunological and inflammatory pathways, heavy stress on the body, autonomic and neurological dysfunction, shifts in metabolism, and gut physiology or gut microbiota disturbances, as well as a wide range of mitochondrial dysfunction. Missailidis et al. (2019).

Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Profound fatigue is a significant symptom, of course.

Still, there are always more symptoms like sleeplessness, IBS, migraines, fungal infections, swelling, water retention, lymph pain, muscle and joint pains, low blood pressure, depression, attention deficit, lightheadedness, brain fog, memory problems, anxiety, and lack of well-being.

Many people have developed chronic fatigue syndrome after Covid-19.

Have you heard my chat with Dr. Tamsin Lewis about Long Covid, immunity, and energy in Podcasts?

How Do You Treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

If a doctor has ruled out possible other causes, they tend to treat symptoms with anti-inflammatory medication, sleeping pills, antibiotics, muscle relaxants, autoimmune suppressants, and painkillers.

Medical treatments for chronic fatigue seem to target the symptoms since the entire understanding of the disease is still evolving, as mentioned above.

The trouble with medication, from my knowledge and experience, is that it is often life-saving but doesn’t treat the cause at systemic levels. It can overload the liver, irritate the gut lining, and create dysbiosis.

Gut dysbiosis (changes in tummy bacteria) is a change in gut physiology and microbiota disturbances.

What Do Changes in Tummy Bacteria Do?

Gut dysbiosis (changed tummy bacteria) dysregulates the immune system, and chronic inflammation kicks in. These will cause susceptibility to developing other conditions.

In an already inflamed and immunocompromised body, more health challenges may arise (joint pains, IBS, migraines, depression, memory loss, fungal infections, and lack of well-being, as mentioned above).

Gut health is connected with mental health. Chronic inflammation extends to neuroinflammation. This is why depression, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction (brain fog) can run alongside many health conditions.

Many people have high cholesterol with chronic fatigue, so if you are looking to lower your cholesterol, please check this article.

Does Gut Health Affect ME?

Recent studies have linked gut bacteria to chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. Drs Williams, Lipkin, and Snow, along with their collaborators, analyzed the genetic makeup of gut bacteria. The results showed critical differences in microbiome diversity, quantity, metabolic pathways, and interactions between species of gut bacteria. Williams et al. (2021).

Many studies show that people can recover from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME. The length of time is dependent on treatment.

What Is a Good Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME Diet?

An anti-inflammatory, gut-healthy diet and lifestyle may help you reduce the recovery time tenfold.

If you do one thing today towards improving your condition, make it a focus on gut health.

When you don’t have the energy to make a cup of tea on some days, the thought of doing anything right now may sound too much, but what you eat on Eat Burn Sleep may make a huge difference.

It will improve your gut health, reduce inflammation naturally, and boost your immune system. Eating nutrient-rich, gut-healthy food regularly is undoubtedly good for promoting restorative and regular sleep.

Support For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME

There is a personalized advice section for extra support when you join a Premium Membership. You may experience conditions alongside ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, like depression, migraines, candida, IBS, bloating and bowel issues, Long Covid, weight loss , weight gain, water retention, and hair loss, for instance, are all listed here. Plus more.

There are guides on what to eat, what not to eat, supplements (our own supplement will be ready soon – so exciting!), therapies, inspirations, neuroplasticity exercises, and much more!

You can join EBS here or book a 15-minute Zoom call with me.

It could be life-changing.

I hope so.

Wishing you good health!

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May 07, 2023

How Do You Get Nutrients With Celiac Disease?

A Nutritious Celiac Diet

Hello Everyone! I was reading a nutritional assessment recently about women with celiac disease. It revealed that their daily micronutrients were unmet.

The study in Norway (Norkost 3) showed that women with celiac disease had an unbalanced diet with a higher intake of total and saturated fat, along with a low fiber intake, compared to the general population.

The results highlighted the need for people with celiac to follow a nutrition-dense diet free of all the triggers.*

This post is for you if you have celiac disease and need guidance in not just what to eat to ensure that you get the proper nutrition but to guarantee that taste, variety, and cakes are involved!

What Are the Symptoms of Celiac Disease?

What Is the Best Diet for Celiac Disease?

How To Eat Healthily With Celiac Disease

What Happens if You Eat a High-Fat Diet?

What Happens if You Don’t Eat Enough Fiber?

Where Do You Find Celiac Nutrition Online?

What Are the Symptoms of Celiac Disease?

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, and symptoms can be surprising and may include:

Diarrhea
Constipation
Bloating
Stomach cramps
Vomiting
Anemia
Nutrient deficiencies
Extreme fatigue
Headaches
Dizziness
Skin rashes
Hair loss
Damage to teeth enamel
Mouth ulcers
Joint pain
Low bone density
Sensory symptoms
Cognitive dysfunction
ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder)
Low moods, anxiety, and depression
Weight loss

The only way to manage celiac disease is through diet and lifestyle, and if done successfully, you can live a symptom-free, rich life.

What Is the Best Diet for Celiac Disease?

If you are newly diagnosed, you may feel relieved that you finally know what has been causing all of your health challenges.

You may have searched for the best diet for celiac disease online and resolved that you won’t be eating out anymore and will be taking food with you wherever you go.

You may have listed everything you can eat but then be flummoxed at putting a varied meal plan together to fit into your life or the family.

The best diet recommendations for celiac disease can often feel restrictive, unsustainable, and boring. Mourning all the food you love, like cake, bread, and cookies, is expected when you have been diagnosed with celiac disease.

You may not know what to avoid since many safe foods for people with celiac disease can be made, processed, and grown alongside foods that cause celiac flare-ups.

*Some surprising ingredients in gluten-free foods will not help your celiac condition.

You could replace your current favorites with ‘gluten-free’ foods but be gaining weight and not feeling optimum health. You may not realize that other ingredients in some gluten-free packaged foods may cause gut dysbiosis.

Gut dysbiosis will exacerbate your symptoms! It causes chronic inflammation, dysregulates your immune system, and makes you vulnerable to more disease.

It can be mind-blowing, I know.

How To Eat Healthily With Celiac Disease

With celiac disease, the lining of your small intestines is damaged, and your immune system has mistakenly attacked your healthy tissues when you have eaten gluten (the substances inside are seen as threats to the body!). This causes your body to be unable to take in nutrients.

I know that when you have to watch what you eat and drink due to the need to eliminate celiac flare-ups, you can often go with tried and trusted ‘safe’ options and limit your food variety. Getting through the day without cramps or sickness is easier than anticipating an attack!

What happens to many people who have gastrointestinal symptoms with their autoimmune disease or chronic condition is malnutrition and dehydration.

These then present more issues that can develop. Anemia, as one example, then presents itself with more symptoms. Have you read Anemia, B12, & Iron Deficiencies?

Poor nutrition absorption can weaken your immune system. You may be interested in reading more about your immune system here.

What Happens if You Eat a High-Fat Diet?

The Norkast 3 study revealed women with celiac disease have high-fat intakes.

A high fat intake puts the risk of diseases of the heart at a higher rate. It can increase the risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

One of the problems is that processed gluten-free foods do not help you when you have celiac disease. They could be making your health worse in the long run.

You see, gluten-free processed food usually has a lot of saturated fat and chemicals to make them palatable. (Have you listened to my podcasts and Instagram Lives about additives and the microbiome with Dr. Dawn Shirling yet?).

There’s also a Masterclass Lives on Additives, that you can listen to/watch here.

High-fat diets change long-chain fatty acid metabolism and gut dysbiosis, which results in high levels of inflammatory triggers.

A high-fat diet and chemicals can alter the bugs in your tummy (microbiota) and decrease, in particular, certain ‘good’ bacteria and increase ‘bad’ bacteria.

As I often mention, bacteria are essential in gut, brain, and immune health.

Gut dysbiosis leads to chronic inflammation, which leads to immune dysregulation.

Oftentimes, with an alteration in the tummy microbiota comes depression, anxiety, low moods, and feeling like you want to cry, for instance. This is the brain-gut connection. Have you read How Do You Live with IBS and Anxiety?

Many people with chronic inflammation suffer low moods and depression, not just because of the challenges of having the conditions and how they present themselves.

What Happens if You Don’t Eat Enough Fiber?

The women in the study with celiac disease also had low fiber intakes.

Fiber is essential in our diets for digestion, gut health, and reducing the risk of developing chronic inflammatory conditions.

Your cardiovascular system is more protected with a fiber-rich diet because fiber reduces total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. LDL is a significant risk for heart conditions. Fiber also slows down carbohydrate sugar absorption, preventing blood sugar spikes after meals.

It is essential to get the balance right because low fiber intake changes tummy bacteria diversity and feeling fuller for longer, too.

Too little can cause bowel issues like IBS and even bowel cancer.

You can miss out on many nutrients if your diet is strict or limited for whatever reason (not the correct type of fiber and fats), but I will save that for another time.

As I mentioned earlier, many deficiencies occur due to conditions that trigger many trips to the bathroom. I have been there! You can feel really ill and low because of the lack of nutrients (as well as dealing with all of the complications and challenges).

Nutrition cannot be compromised. For many autoimmune diseases, mineral deficiencies, for instance, are not compensated for.

It is crucial to have a nutrient-rich diet for celiac disease while reducing inflammation, healing the condition, and protecting from developing other conditions and symptoms.

I have two autoimmune conditions in remission, and I feel amazing!

You may be interested in listening to how I put my autoimmune diseases into remission here or reading about how our bodies are wired for healing here.

Where Do You Find Celiac Nutrition Online?

Needless to say, Eat Burn Sleep’s nutrient-packed celiac-friendly diet and lifestyle may have you feeling the same way in very little time. Plus, it just gets better, and it isn’t temporary.

You don’t have to overthink too much because I have done all the meal planning, family and friends-friendly recipes, lunch boxes, and eating-out guide for you. When I was devising it, I decided that it had to be delicious and include tons of treats. I didn’t want to miss cakes and cookies! I don’t ‘do’ bland in life!

You don’t need to be good at cooking to prepare delicious nutrient-dense celiac-friendly meals. There are dozens of cake and cookie recipes (which have a reputation for being divine by cake-eating experts!), and you will know what to eat when you dine out (the eating-out guide is on the app!).

You can still eat your old favorites in moderation (but you may not want to because of the pain they used to cause and because gut microbiota is very clever!).

One important thing to note is I advise you to think about all of the beautiful new food and ways to live that are before you if you have been diagnosed with celiac, rather than feeling like you have to give up things you love. Adopting the Eat Burn Sleep gut health diet and lifestyle will reinforce the incredible way you will feel in no time.

Changing what you eat and how you eat will aid your gut healing, digestion, nutrient absorption, brain, energy, and sleep patterns. Moving and thinking in an anti-inflammatory, stress-free way will support them further.

Eat Burn Sleep allows you to be spontaneous again!

Life is to be lived well, after all!

I hope you have a wonderful day.

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Yalda Alaoui

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April 30, 2023

Reduce Asthma with an Anti-inflammatory Diet

Asthma and Gut Health

Hello Everyone! Did you know that certain nutrients and what you eat make a difference to asthma when consumed regularly? Those bugs in your tummy that I talk about will also play a role in your asthma.

This post explains how this safe and natural anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle may benefit you if you have asthma.

What Is Asthma?

How Does Gut Health Affect Asthma?

What Is a Good Asthma Diet?

How Can You Fix Asthma Naturally?

Does Stress Affect Asthma?

What Exercise Is Good for Asthma?

How to Live a Happy Life with Asthma

What Is Asthma?

Asthma is a non-communicable disease affecting children and adults. One of the critical components is chronic inflammation of the airways.

According to WHO, 262 million people in 2019 were affected by asthma, and there were 455 000 deaths worldwide.

Asthma has been linked to many things like intestinal permeability, nutrition deficiencies, specific diets, certain exercises, genetics, stress, intense emotions, medication, tobacco smoke, pollution, weather, chemicals, animal hair and skin, pests, disinfectants, and overcleaning, dust, mold, and infections.

Chronic inflammation and disruption in gut health are linked with asthma, which dysregulates the immune system, which many of the above can cause.

Maternal diet and lifestyle and how you were delivered into the world are linked to asthma, too!

How Does Gut Health Affect Asthma?

A healthy gut has 4-5 lbs of diverse bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa (known as microbiota). It produces metabolites that impact metabolic and immune responses and protects against pathogens.

Many factors determine the diversity of the bacteria in your gut. For instance, airway responses can increase with a gastrointestinal tract with more invasive bacteria than protective bacteria. The immune system is compromised, chronic inflammatory respiratory disorders increase, and so on.

In a study on the origin of respiratory diseases in children, Watson et al. (2019) determined that there was always gut dysbiosis (imbalance) with a diagnosis of asthma.

Balanced gut microbiota is imperative to health, considering that 70% of immune cells (Gut-associated Lymphoid Tissue) reside there, and gut lining strength depends on it.

If anything happens to the gut lining (intestinal barrier) and the gut-associated lymphoid tissue, this is when autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disorders may occur. Indeed, asthma has been linked to ‘Leaky Gut Syndrome’.

Changes in the gut are linked with altered immune responses and airway homeostasis.

What Is a Good Asthma Diet?

What you eat could impact your asthma. Many foods cause a great disturbance in homeostasis in the body, leading to inflammatory conditions and exacerbating symptoms in diseases like asthma.

As with many inflammatory conditions, like I say, gut-healthy nutrients in Eat Burn Sleep’s anti-inflammatory diet may prevent and alleviate asthma, too.

You see, short-chain fatty acids are produced in high amounts when you follow EBS, and they have immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects.

We have an abundance of antioxidants in our recipes that will contribute to reducing airway inflammation and reactivity. They also have anti-allergic properties. They prevent, intercept, and repair oxidation and cellular damage (lungs are constantly exposed to oxidants).

Remember that our focus is gut health, which is imperative to overall good health.

How Can You Fix Asthma Naturally?

It isn’t just about what you eat, of course, because how we live, and sleep can cause inflammation. There are asthma triggers everywhere!

The health education that Eat Burn Sleep provides is vital to reducing your inflammatory condition and improving your health and quality of life tenfold.

By the way, I always advise to never give up medication that your doctor has prescribed you, and certainly run this gut health lifestyle for asthma by them.

Eat Burn Sleep gives you the tools to improve liver function. You see, allergies and many substances and compounds can create sub-optimum liver functioning. Members, access the potent and safe liver detox here.

The lifestyle enhances metabolism, nutrient absorption, immunity, and the reduction of oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.

The great thing is that it suits the whole family (I call it family and friend-friendly), and it’s portable. You can access the food lists, shopping guide and recipes (which you may have saved to favorites), and daily goals on the app, for instance, at the grocery store.

The Eating Out Guide is handy on the app, too!

Does Stress Affect Asthma?

Cortisol and other hormones release when stressed. If elongated, this can induce alterations in immune response, which may have implications for triggering asthma attacks and exacerbating the condition. It affects digestion and gut health, too.

Stress can worsen your asthma, promoting a cycle because asthma can exacerbate stress. Stress can also aid in the development of asthma.

(Some stress can’t be avoided, but EBS’s stress-reducing tools are incredibly effective!).

You may be interested in reading: Do You Often Feel Like Crying and Don’t Know Why?

What Exercise Is Good for Asthma?

Many things can occur that will affect asthma with some exercises. For instance, airways can get smaller and inflamed with heat and water loss when breathing in dry air. Some exercises can induce asthma.

However, many sports are low-risk for asthma, and there are effective stress-reducing safe movements (as well as neuroplasticity exercises) to do on this anti-inflammatory lifestyle.

How to Live a Happy Life with Asthma

It can seem hard to believe, at times, that what you eat, what you do, and how you sleep could contribute to the intensity of your symptoms and long-term effects.

Living the EBS way treats chronic inflammatory conditions like obesity, GERD, and eczema. These are commonly linked to worsened asthma outcomes.

This anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle for asthma, along with good management of medications under your doctor’s guidance, may very well help you live a regular, active, and happy life.

I wish you all a happy, healthy day!

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April 09, 2023

Prevent Knee Osteoarthritis Progression

Treating Knee Osteoarthritis Early

Hello Everyone! If you are experiencing the early stages of knee osteoarthritis (OA) or have been told to lose weight to qualify for surgery, this post is for you.

Knee osteoarthritis can come with age, excess weight, repetitive movements, and injury. It also accompanies many non-communicable diseases, and the rate of progression differs for everyone. Chronic inflammation is the culprit of so many conditions!

If you catch it early enough, you may be able to stop the progression of knee joint issues (as well as treat your noncommunicable disease). Doctors often recommend lifestyle modifications for the nonsurgical treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Of course, prevention is key.

Here are some ways that may help you prevent knee osteoarthritis, reduce inflammation around your knee joints, and reduce knee pain risk. Protecting your joints as you age and aging beautifully and with ease is possible!

What Causes Knee Osteoarthritis?

What Foods Are Best for Osteoarthritis?

Can You Improve Osteoarthritis?

How Can You Stop Knee Joint Pain Getting Worse?

What Exercise Is Best for Knee Joint Pain?

Do Fascia Stretches Help Knee Pain?

Is It Okay to Keep Taking Painkillers?

What Causes Knee Osteoarthritis?

According to The Lancet, their study from 2020 recorded 654 million people over 40 with knee osteoarthritis worldwide.

With the rise in obesity, these figures are set to be exponential.

CRP is elevated in knee osteoarthritis compared to healthy individuals and is correlated with rheumatic disease signs and symptoms, including HAQ (health assessment questionnaire) disability, joint count, and pain. Wolfe (1997).

CRP is C-Reactive Protein.

The liver makes this, and we have low levels in the blood.

When inflammation runs high, your liver releases more CRP into the bloodstream.

High inflammation running in the body is harmful because this is when chronic inflammatory diseases can develop.

The immune system is dysregulated, too.

Inflammatory cytokines are associated with osteoarthritis. Sohn et al. (2012).

Cytokines (proteins that, when released, tell the immune system to do their job), leptin (a hormone made by fat cells), and mechanical forces are all pathogenic factors of knee osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is multi-factorial. Aging and wear and tear on cartilage, old injuries that didn’t heal, genetics, obesity, diabetes, repetitive use of joints, muscle weakness, bone density, and lifestyle all come into play.

Of course, your orthopedic doctor will advise you on your joint pain since they will have your x-rays and medical history but below are some suggestions to reduce inflammation, which will aid in healing your knees.

What Foods Are Best for Osteoarthritis?

Embark on eating anti-inflammatory, nutrient-dense foods and eliminating pro-inflammatory foods.

Keep your gut from dysbiosis, look after your immune cells, and keep chronic inflammation at bay through good tummy bacteria diversity.

This will aid in continued and sustained weight loss, too. Obesity is a consistent main factor in knee osteoarthritis. Blagojevic et al. (2010). It will assist you if you have been advised to lose weight for surgery, too.

Members, follow the food lists and educate yourself by checking out the personalized advice section for personalizing your EBS health plan. You may have a condition that affects your joints, like gout, for instance, or have accompanying depression or migraines. Follow the Osteoarthritis personalized advice here.

The personalized advice will help you keep triggers at bay, for instance. It will advise what foods to enjoy and avoid and supplements and techniques to help your inflammatory condition.

Joints become inflamed with chronic inflammatory conditions and incomplete nutrition. For instance, Synovial Fluid (joint fluid) relies on certain foods, such as antioxidants and EFAs.

Vitamin D is vital for musculoskeletal health, etc. Check out: Benefits of Sun Exposure.

If you haven’t already, get into taking anti-inflammatory turmeric shots.

Members, check out the Masterclass Series. You will learn so much!

Can You Improve Osteoarthritis?

Depending on the cause of your osteoarthritis, you can improve knee osteoarthritis.

Ensure that you live an inflammation-reducing lifestyle. This means minimizing inflammation with what you eat, drink, breathe in, and how you move and deal with stress.

It is about good sleep quality and what you think, too. Digestion and exercise reduce inflammation when sleep is good, and good sleep occurs when digestion and exercise work and inflammation are down. When you get the balance right, it all works synergistically together.

Good nutrition and absorption are necessary for health.

An anti-inflammatory lifestyle can’t change an old injury, say, or any bone deformities. Still, it can reduce inflammation around the bones and aid if it is a condition like obesity or Type 2 diabetes.

An anti-inflammatory diet can ‘switch off’ genetics in terms of expression. You can’t change your genetics, but you can support your body with less genetic expression.

How Can You Stop Knee Joint Pain Getting Worse?

Manage your weight by reducing chronic inflammation. Excess weight can have a detrimental effect on joints. Plus, fat cells make proteins that cause inflammation around your joints.

Obesity was a consistent main factor of OE in a study cited above, as is Leptin, an adipose-tissue-derived hormone.

People with obesity have unusually high levels of leptin.

Significant levels of leptin were found in the synovial fluids (a thick, lubricating liquid in joint cavities) of OA joints, which correlated with Body Mass Index. Dumond et al. (2003).

Weight-bearing joints such as knees have to support some of your body weight. That is why so many people with weight issues can struggle with walking. Which does not help reduce the inflammation and can contribute to significant stress on the knees and joint pain.

Members follow personalized Weight Loss advice, and this one: Reduce Bloat and Deal with Digestion Issues.

Anti-inflammatory food, lifestyle, and exercises reduce weight and keep it off effortlessly.

What Exercise Is Best for Knee Joint Pain?

Maintain your joints by moving them. Our joints are designed to take load and move, and the cartilage needs load to maintain itself.

Ensure you don’t cause damage by doing exercises that aggravate joints and induce inflammation. Repetitive movements like squats are common risk factors for knee osteoarthritis.

Ensure that you activate your lubricating fluid by easing into your movement routines. Joints also don’t like inactivity. Remember to move regularly.

If you have just joined the platform, go for the Beginner’s movements and the Fascia Stretching, Mobility, Leg, and Vagus Nerve routines. There are also many movements for the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back muscles and for hip pain release. Strengthening different muscles will take the pressure off the joints but go at your own pace.

Members, check out the Pink, Grey, and White Series for different pose guidance to support your anti-inflammatory routine. There are over 160 movements on Eat Burn Sleep, and many will work on the inner-range quadriceps, for instance. This will help develop the neuromuscular function of the knees, which aids in reintroducing good functional movements.

All the exercises support your posture, protecting your joints and knees. The exercises teach you to listen to your body and connect with your mind and muscle. You can save what suits you in Favorites.

Navigating the movements section should be easy but do reach out to the team with any questions. You may be interested in reading: 10 Reasons to Walk.

Members, access your Walking Guide here.

Do Fascia Stretches Help Knee Pain?

Yes, fascia stretching aids in reducing inflammation, increasing lymph, blood flow, and mobility, and encouraging body flexibility. As mentioned above, there are plenty of exercises on the platform that will help you stretch out your fascia. Check out the article: Why Is Stretching Your Fascia So Important?

Is It Okay to Keep Taking Painkillers?

Don’t overdo the painkillers. Non-steroid inflammatory drugs are often recommended as first-line therapy, but long-term use is limited.

Be aware that painkillers can cause gut dysbiosis (imbalance of gut flora), which upsets the immune system and invokes chronic inflammation. You may want to read: Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet & Lifestyle.

Non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increase inflammation and can cause damage to the cartilage. They can have other side effects, too. This means you create a vicious cycle of pain, brief interludes of ease, but more pain and inflammation ensue.

Of course, I always advise you to run this anti-inflammatory lifestyle by your doctors. It may just be that they are already prescribing it. It is Bupa-Global-approved, after all.

I hope that you have a happy and healthy day!

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March 19, 2023

What Foods Help Ease Multiple Sclerosis?

Treating Autoimmune and Chronic Inflammation Diseases

Hello Everyone. Inflammation plays a critical part in many chronic diseases, like autoimmune diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases, like multiple sclerosis.

The great news is, as I always say, chronic inflammation can be lowered by manipulating the gut microbiota.

For this post, I will remind you about the power of the bugs inside your tummy and the link with multiple sclerosis. Run it by your neurologist!

What Is Multiple Sclerosis?

Gut Microbiota and Inflammation

How Do You Change Your Gut Bacteria?

Gut Bacteria and Multiple Sclerosis

Reduce Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases

Best Diet for Autoimmune Diseases

What Is Multiple Sclerosis?

Multiple sclerosis is a multi-factorial, complex chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that can be unpredictable. It is an inflammatory CNS (central nervous system) disease. As with many conditions, no two people have the same symptoms.

Depending on which part of the central nervous system has been affected will affect symptoms. This nerve damage increases the symptoms of multiple sclerosis over time. Balance, coordination, vision, muscles, memory, and emotions could be affected.

One of my clients was diagnosed with MS at 34, a typical age to be diagnosed with MS. She used to suffer from loss of sensation, tingling in both hands and legs, anxiety attacks, and depression. She couldn’t walk for long without needing to sit down and rest. She felt physically and mentally exhausted before she embarked on Eat Burn Sleep. I know how that feels. It can also take a tremendous emotional toll.

MS can be genetic. Environmental factors like lack of exercise, smoking, unhealthy eating, and microbial and viral infections can all play a part in the development, course, and progression of MS.

Dr. Hafler, a professor at Yale School of Medicine, states: “While it was always clear that MS was an inflammatory autoimmune disease, one of the major surprises in the field of medicine has been the role of inflammation in different diseases, particularly neurodegenerative diseases. We now understand it plays a critical part.”

Dr. Hafler and his researchers discovered that myelin-reactive T-cells were highly inflammatory and likely to cause disease.

Gut Microbiota and Inflammation

The 100 trillion bacteria in your gut (microbiota) undergo many changes throughout your life. What gut bacteria you start out with changes are influenced by environment, diet, and lifestyle factors.

Stresses change your microbiota. Medication changes your bacteria, what you eat and drink, and whether you are exposed to toxins. Plus, who you live with alters your microbiota!

Have a read of NSAIDS, Gut Health & Inflammation, Painkillers Not Helping Your Headaches?, and Side Effects of Antibiotics & IBD.

A diverse, balanced gut microbiota also promotes a beautiful, protective, anti-inflammatory environment within the intestines. Here, 70% of our immune cells live (GALT – gut-associated lymphoid tissue).

When balanced, these amazing bugs that live within our tummies can inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria cause an inflammatory state, which can cause various diseases.

An inflammatory state means that your immune system becomes dysregulated.

The role of gut microbiota is crucial because of its impact on regulating and maintaining the normal function of the innate immune system.

How Do You Change Your Gut Bacteria?

We all have some bad bugs in our tummy, which are necessary, but we need to promote the good guys, not the bad guys, to keep the environment anti-inflammatory and protective.

Members: the lists of foods and compounds that change the composition of gut bacteria into a pro-inflammatory state are listed in the Red Food Lists.

The nutrients you need to promote anti-inflammatory action to protect yourself and reduce inflammation are listed in the Eating Out Guide and the personalized advice section. (It’s good to keep refreshed for when you are not following the recipes and are away from home because Eat Burn Sleep research is continuous!).

What you feed your gut bacteria may affect your multiple sclerosis. What you expose yourself to affects your gut bacteria.

Gut Bacteria and Multiple Sclerosis

Gut microbiota has been studied extensively in Multiple Sclerosis. There are certain bacteria distinct to multiple sclerosis shown consistently. Which also connects the gut imbalance with a pro-inflammatory state and a regulatory effect in human T cells. Chen et al. (2016), for instance.

Gut microbiota appears to play an essential role in the pathogenesis of MS. It may be involved in modulating the host’s immune system, altering the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, triggering autoimmune demyelination, and interacting directly with different cell types present in the central nervous system – Schepici et al. (2019).

Reduce Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases

It was the continuous word ‘inflammation’ from doctors reading out my test results that became the seed of Eat Burn Sleep over a decade ago.

I had to research and understand everything because the prognosis wasn’t good, and I just felt exasperated.

By modulating my gut health and getting the microbiota balance right, I was able to put my autoimmune diseases into remission. It wasn’t easy because there is more to it than just what you eat.

Believe me, I tried all of the popular diets and suggestions in my desperation to have control over my health and start living happily again. As anyone knows, health challenges can take over your life.

The physical damage I experienced from diets like Keto was hard, but I had to give everything a try in my quest. I thought I had hit on the right one until I experienced that they were temporary measures.

Best Diet for Autoimmune Diseases

Anyway, it took me a long time to research to get the perfect diet and lifestyle to control my autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation. Bearing in mind that the diet and lifestyle had to be exciting. Health was the most important, of course, but I knew I had to have things to look forward to, eat and drink, and do.

Food is life; it had to be delicious, and there had to be cake, coffee, and a glass of wine (although I am seriously debating whether I like the after-effects the next day, lately!).

Needless to say, I didn’t want a bland, restrictive diet and lifestyle.

Long story short, this anti-inflammatory lifestyle – Eat Burn Sleep was born, which I am very passionate about. I got there in the end and couldn’t keep it to myself.

Have you tried these inflammation-reducing recipes: Cream of Broccoli & Zucchini Soup, Apple & Cinnamon Cake, and Yalda’s Niçoise Salad?

You may not be able to cure your multiple sclerosis, but you can put it into remission, and you certainly may be able to live well (really well) with it.

As always, I am sending healthy, happy wishes to you all.

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Depression, Anxiety & Gut Health

What Is Gut Health?

February 05, 2023

Reducing Cancer Risk & Recovery

Cancer Protection and Treating Cancer Through Your Gut

Hello Everyone! Gut microbiota plays a crucial role in our mind and body and in inducing and reducing chronic diseases, including cancer. Countless studies link gut microbiota with cancer, and there is reason why.

In this post, I will point out why microbiota impacts disease and how you can reduce the risk of developing cancer and assist your body in the early stages of cancer, through treatment and in remission.

What Can Cause Cancer?

Why Is Cancer So Common?

What Foods Affect Cancer?

How Does Gut Bacteria Prevent Cancer?

What Helps Reduce the Effects of Chemotherapy?

Gut Microbiota and Cancer

Improve Gut Health to Reduce Cancer Risk

Inspirational Cancer Stories

What Can Cause Cancer?

Inflammation has potent effects on the development and spreading of cancer. Inflammation leads the body into a pro-inflammatory state without apparent symptoms over a long period. Still, it causes DNA damage, cell mutation, and proliferation. This leads to chronic diseases like cancer.

Cancer is a multifactorial disease (genetic, lifestyle, immune response, environment, stress, and so on), so it can seem hard to believe that gut microbiota influences cancer prevention and treatment.

Still, you can see the link when you think about how microbiota stimulates immunity, regulates inflammation, and reduces infectious, metabolic, and chronic diseases.

Food, stress, environmental pollutants, bacteria, viruses, lack of exercise, and sleep are some of the factors that increase pro-inflammatory cytokines, inflammatory enzymes, adhesion molecules, chemokines, and so on, which are all linked to chronic inflammation in the body.

A microenvironment of chronic inflammation, which is a dysregulation of the immune system, allows tumor cell survival, proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis (blood vessel growth), metastasis (cells break away from the tumor and travel to form new tumors), chemoresistance (resistant to chemicals) and radioresistance (resistant to radiation).

Why Is Cancer So Common?

The vast majority of cancers are down to genetic and environmental factors. Many environmental factors increase chronic inflammation and the pathways that promote tumor growth.

Cancers are also linked to unhealthy foods, chemicals, and additives that we eat and drink, obesity, other inflammatory conditions, and autoimmune diseases. Did you read Why Is Aspartame Linked to Cancer?

Cancers are linked to infections like H.pylori and hepatitis and inhaling pollutants like asbestos and cigarette smoke.

Some cancers are linked to our jobs, reproductive and sexual behavior, industrial products, and even ionizing radiation like X-rays.

Considering that millions of new chemicals are amongst us, in our air, water, and foods, in the space of a couple of generations, you can see why cancer has increased over that time.

Many causes and links to cancer put our bodies into a pro-inflammatory state.

Chronic inflammation switches on our genes. Although we can’t switch off our genetic makeup, we can lessen inflammation’s expression with what we can control. I always advise making your body less inflammatory, even if you do not have any symptoms or apparent conditions or if you have non-communicable diseases that run in your family.

What Foods Affect Cancer?

Of course, many complex transformations and processes occur in the body during cancer development. Still, when damaging chronic inflammation exists, it supports the growth and proliferation of cancer cells and cancels out the immune response to fighting infections, for instance.

Since the factors that contribute to cancer affect and are affected by chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammation is affected by our gut microbiota, it is no surprise that there is a bidirectional link between cancer and gut microbiota.

When gut microbiota is disturbed and dysbiosis occurs, the physiological changes lead to disease development.

The fascinating thing, and crucial to health, is that gut microbiota is easily manipulated into a better environment to promote optimum health and fight disease.

When changed to a healthier diversity, your microbiota will crave more nutrition rather than the foods and drinks that cause dysbiosis. They are that powerful.

The more you stick to an anti-inflammatory diet, the more you feed microbiota, which lets your brain know that it wants more of those nutrients. By going with what your mind and body (brain-gut axis) tell you and feeding your body with that good bacteria, you begin healing yourself.

This goes for both good and bad bacteria.

How Does Gut Bacteria Prevent Cancer?

Suppose you have a diet that contains more processed and less nutritious foods; the more likely that pathogenic bacteria like Bacteroides will be craving more.

Did you read Low-calorie Foods for Weight Loss?

They make your body inflamed through gut dysbiosis, dysregulating the immune system and making you susceptible to disease. This means that you are less likely to be able to fight disease, too.

You can aid your body in cancer protection and treatment success through your gut microbiota.

Extensive studies on microbiota show that in as little as 24 hours, microbiome composition can change dramatically. This is why EBS members feel the benefits rather quickly, which gets better and better.

This is all down to the essential components in various foods when eaten predominantly, which you will find recipes for on Eat Burn Sleep. A wide variety of the proper nutrients work synergistically to prevent cellular stress, boost immunity, and reduce fat cell composition; for instance, they inhibit inflammatory states and promote optimum health.

A comprehensive range of techniques to reduce stress, change habits, and be kinder to yourself contribute to good gut health, reducing the risk of cancer development.

Reducing inflammation through eating, drinking, moving, breathing, thinking, sleeping, and generally looking after ourselves is key.

Chronic inflammation is modulated by how we live and mentally deal with disease and recovery.

What Helps Reduce the Effects of Chemotherapy?

Following this protocol will minimize the effects of chemotherapy and optimize your results.

Eat Burn Sleep has its own 6-Week Reset Liver Detox and Microbiota-Balancing Program, which brings incredible results and kicks off your journey to good health.

So, if you have cancer and are undergoing treatment, I advise that you do the 6-week Reset and follow the specialized advice on cancer protection and treatment. It will guide you on what to eat and avoid, supplements, powerful neuroplasticity exercises, meditations and relaxation techniques, and movement.

Liver health is essential for everyone and takes a lot of strain during cancer treatment and any medication. You can read more about that here: Detox Your Liver Naturally.

Gut Microbiota and Cancer

Many diets and lifestyles reduce beneficial bacteria and increase unhealthy bacteria and gut dysbiosis.

If you look at the typical Western diet, with high omega-6 fats, processed foods, chemical additives, and high glycemic loads, an array of events occur in the body to put it into a less-than-healthy state.

So, suppose you are eating this way every day. In that case, a whole complex interplay occurs in your body. You will increase unhealthy bacteria like Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, and Clostridia and reduce good bacteria like Bifidobacteria and Eubacteria.

All of these unhealthy bacteria in the gut activate an inflammatory state through an over-reacting immune response, leading to tissue degeneration, a compromised gut barrier, and the development of tumors, for instance.

Manipulating the microbiome with good bacteria and essential nutrients that also suppress inflammation inhibits the effects of harmful bacteria. This will regulate the immune system and reduce inflammation and cancer risk.

Have you tried Spinach & Tomato Paleo Muffins, Rack of Lamb With Basil & Mint, and Slow Cooker Oxtail & Vegetables?

Improve Gut Health to Reduce Cancer Risk

As I mentioned above, gut microbiota changes in no time. Health is improved dramatically, even with the occasional lapse. Small changes often lead to one significant change over some time. Now is always a good time to start protecting yourself from disease and reducing systemic inflammation (which allows the perfect environment for the growth of the disease).

It is not just what we eat and drink that changes our microbiota, though, as I always say.

Maintaining a pro-oxidative/anti-oxidative balance along with an inflammation-reducing microbiota-balancing diet and lifestyle will assist with de-stressing your mind and body. It will correct immune system alterations, protect from free-radical damage, and reduce chronic non-communicable diseases.

Inspirational Cancer Stories

As Karin Greenberg says in one of our podcasts, thoughts are intensely important to protect you when you have cancer and chronic disease. After the initial shock and denial of cancer diagnosis, she took on a positive mindset.

She planned, dreamed, and visualized the party that she would have when it was all over.

Karen’s story is inspirational for dealing with cancer; it gave me goosebumps! Head on over there to hear her talk about surviving breast cancer.

In the podcast section, you will find our member Sofia’s uplifting cancer recovery story. You may be interested in the article: How Can You Prevent & Treat Cervical Cancer? and Anti-cancer Diet: Recovery and Protection.

If you are undergoing cancer treatment, be with people who love and support you! There’s no time or energy for less-than-positive people that drain you at the best times, so ensure you have the best people around you.

I wish you strength, love, and hope!

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