Science has a much better understanding of bacteria today than we used to. We now know that we have a huge responsibility in tending to our holobiome (the name given to the trillions of bacteria, fungi, molds and viruses that live in your intestines and on your skin) and how we influence it with the way we treat it. We have the capacity to wipe out everything we have done to grow a mature and healthy holobiome just by taking a broad-spectrum antibiotic for something like a simple cough.

This is a drug class including medications like ibuprofen and naproxen that decrease fever, reduce pain, prevent blood clots and reduce inflammation in higher doses. These were introduced roughly 40 years ago as an alternative to aspirin because of the damage it would cause to the lining of the stomach. Since then, we have learned that NSAIDs are just as bad, if not worse, due to the damage they cause. They target the intestinal wall, damaging the mucosal barrier in the small intestine and colon. This allows foreign substances to penetrate your gut wall and ultimately negatively affect your health. These foreign substances cause inflammation as we mentioned before: lectins, LPSs and others. Once you have inflammation, what do most people unknowingly do to try and combat it? Take more NSAIDs, thus, creating a cycle. We rely on these medications when we aren’t well so much so that they are the number one seller in the pharmaceutical industry. But they are also our number one problem at the same time. Initially, some of them were prescription only because of their effect.

Stomach-Acid Blockers are medications like Prilosec and Prevacid that are PPIs (Proton-pump Inhibitors) that provide a long-lasting reduction in the production of stomach acid. They do so by blocking the enzyme in the wall that produces acid. This is a problem because you need stomach acid to kill off bad bacteria. If you don’t have it, then pathogenic bacteria take over. These are disease-producing bacteria, so you are welcoming illness when you take these blockers. Ultimately, your gut flora is altered. This can even cause bad and good bacteria to crawl into your small intestine, where they don’t belong, creating a leaky gut when they mess with your gut barrier. They can also cause Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). All of this allows lectins and other intruders to have access to your circulatory system, where they invade and begin to cause inflammation and weight gain due to your immune system’s response to the invasion. Your body begins to store fat in order to produce white blood cells that will fight against the invasion.

Sweeteners also act as endocrine disruptors by disrupting your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is your body’s natural internal clock that regulates your sleep/wake cycle. This disruption eventually leads to weight gain. You might wonder how. Well, your body has internal clocks for many functions. There is the 24- hour sleep/wake cycle and you also have a seasonal clock. Back in the day, fruits weren’t available year-round. There was less food available in the winter, so our bodies will store fat for the upcoming winter months. This occurred on our internal, seasonal clock. When you eat sweets, your body essentially prepares for winter by storing fat, resulting in unwelcome weight gain. As you do this regularly throughout the year, you continually trick your body and as a result, your body gives you extra fat. This is why the availability of fruit year-round is a huge contributor to our obesity epidemic.

These agents can be found in things like scented cosmetics, sunscreens, preservatives, receipts from cash registers and most plastics. That’s a wide range of commonly used products and really gives you something to think about.

Many products include compounds used as preservatives or stabilizers like BHT (butyl hydroxytoluene) to prevent spoilage. Certain processed foods contain this, including whole-grain products.

Another well-known chemical compound is BPA (Bisphenol A), which is used in plastics to make them tougher and heat-resistant. It also lines canned foods to protect the food from the metal, which may corrode and contaminate the food, and can also be found in teething rings for babies.

All of these compounds permanently lock onto the thyroid receptors on cells and estrogen receptors, blocking them from properly functioning, therefore resulting in hormone disruption.

Biocides are poisonous substances that destroy life. You are familiar with pesticides, insecticides and herbicides and they are all different versions of biocides. Pesticides kill certain pests on crops, insecticides kill certain insects like mosquitoes and herbicides kill certain weeds that we don’t want around. While these have questionable benefits, the consequences of using them are severe. The foods we eat including produce and animals that have been exposed to these biocides are being poisoned. They affect our genes and signaling in our bodies simply by entering through the skin or through our intestinal tract.

The hormone leptin triggers our body to burn off the fat we acquire in winter. This is all part of our seasonal cycling and there is a term called metabolic flexibility that means we are using either glucose for fuel or fat for fuel, depending on the season. The blue spectrum of light is what delegates this signal and today, we have an overabundance of it everywhere we go. We have TVs, cell phones, tablets and other devices that are right under our noses. There are also other items like energy saving light-bulbs that we put all throughout our homes that emits this blue spectrum of light. The problem with this is that it interferes with our sleep as it curbs melatonin production. Melatonin helps us fall asleep and not being able to sleep well is linked to obesity.

Blue light also tricks our bodies into believing we are in an endless summer as it triggers the hormones cortisol and ghrelin. We are genetically programmed by these hunger and awake hormones, so when we are exposed to the blue light spectrum, it prepares us for the upcoming winter months year-round. Ultimately, this also leads us to unintentional weight gain.

Most people think bread is a healthy food because we’ve been eating it for over 10,000 years. For this reason, bread deserves to be listed separately and for me to explain to you how unhealthy bread is.

Whole grains and transglutaminase in bread products introduce the lectin, protein wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), into your gut. Transglutaminase and WGA both initiate intestinal leakage of LPSs (lipopolysaccharides) into your bloodstream and incite hormone mimicry (hormone disruption and imbalances). Transglutaminase makes you gluten-sensitive, inciting inflammation in your body.

 Azodicarbonamide – an endocrine disruptor that is used in synthetic leather products, carpets, underlayment and yoga mats as a forming agent – is also used to bleach flour and condition bread dough. Most fast-food restaurants use it in some - or all - of their bread products. Azodicarbonamide is banned in Europe and Australia because it is related to asthma, allergies and the suppression of our immune system.

Lectins are defensive chemicals produced by plants to protect the plants and the plants seeds. Plants have the same drive to survive and pass on their genes to future generations similar to us humans. Lectins are large proteins found in plants that plants use to protect themselves. Lectins are sticky proteins that bind with cellular surfaces in animals, humans and insects. lectins can cause toxic and inflammatory reactions within the host which can produce health problems and weight gain.

Cattle, pigs and sheep meat carry the sugar molecule Neu5Gc, which the immune system recognizes as an allergen and triggers an autoimmune inflammatory response. The Neu5Gc molecule resembles the Neu5Gc sugar molecule which is in the lining of our blood vessels. Many scientific studies indicate that the clothes, identical patterns of these two sugar molecules result in our own immune system attacking our blood vessel linings, resulting in cardiovascular disease. The above may be one of the reasons fish-eaters have better health than meat-eaters. The Neu5Gc sugar molecule is also used by cancer cells to attract blood vessel growth toward the tumors.

Recent Dental research has revealed that chronic apical periodontitis occurs frequently in teeth that have had root canals. This can present itself as a painless, silent low-grade infection that is not detectable on regular x-ray and only detectable with a 3D cone beam Imaging study. In addition, monitoring C-reactive protein could reveal a chronic silent infection. This type of silent infection can spread to other parts of your body and cause widespread health problems. Infected teeth, gums, tonsils, cavitations and sinuses are insidiously asymptomatic. We don’t see or feel them. These types of infections can be linked to heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes, and a host of other chronic degenerative diseases. These look like silent infections can circulate through our bodies VR venous and lymphatic systems and Cosgrave health problems as mentioned above. It is important to have any teeth sensitivity examined by a dentist. In addition, if you had a root canal those teeth should be evaluated with Cone Beam 3D Imaging.

Limit your simple carbohydrates to under 200 calories per day. Simple carbohydrates will spike your insulin level and make it impossible to go into ketosis. Eventually, we will also limit your protein intake as protein will turn into sugar. We recommend that you can have additional carbohydrates in the form of resistant starches or resistant carbohydrates. These are carbohydrates that are not digested by you but are digested by the good bacteria in your GI tract.

Adjuvants are substances that increase an immune response. They are largely exogenous substances that may be intended as adjuvants. Intended adjuvants such as aluminum hydroxide in a vaccine or unintended adjuvants such as plasticizers in the manufacture of plastic bottles may initiate an unwanted immune response.

Adjuvant substances, including aluminum hydroxide, silicone, organisms, Mercury, petroleum oils and viruses can act as immunogenic stimulants. Due to Modern Manufacturing there are thousands of adjuvants in the world which are exposed to millions of people through the air they breathe and the water they drink.

Autoimmune – inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants are now classified as ASIA. Several researchers have proposed that the silicone and implantation devices can act as an adjuvant to the immune system in those with genetic susceptibility. Silicon was considered an inert substance and assumed not to elicit any immune reactions. However, both Rodent and Human Studies have disproved this assumption. Several Studies have shown that women with silicone breast implants have significantly higher incidence of arthralgia, myalgia, fatigue, and impaired cognition. Siliconosis is somewhat controversial. The Food and Drug Administration has found no evidence for any association between autoimmune diseases and silicone breast implants or injections. However, the FDA has not addressed the possibility of a non classical inflammatory reaction such as Asia. The FDA recommends when will the silicone filled implants be screened for silent rupture three years after implantation and every two years thereafter. Interesting Lee, the FDA has reported that they do not consider implants lifetime devices.