Balanced Health Bioenergetic Testing

Spring is here! And, I'm finally back to blogging (I know it's been awhile) and I have a special offer to share at the end of this post.

I'm always stoked when I have something helpful to share and I'm especially pleased to be writing about the subject of bioenergetic testing. This post might sound a little out there, but bioenergetic testing has been a useful modality I've found for solving pieces of my health puzzles. What is bioenergetic testing? Also called electrodermal screening, or bio-resonance testing, it's an energy medicine modality based on the premise that the body has energy points where the health and function of different organs and systems can be measured via electrical frequencies/resonance.

In the case of bioenergetic testing, these points are tested by running an electrical current through a wand that touches the point (usually on the hands and feet), and runs energy through the meridians and measures bioelectrical resonance. Each resonance is compared, in a computer program, against the recorded resonance pattern of a healthy organ or system to see if that organ indicates stress or hypo-functioning. Another function of bioenergetic testing is measuring the resonance of nutrient deficiencies, substances like foods and environmental factors that resonate as "sensitivities", pathogens, hormones, and toxicity. Once all of this is tested, then the resonances of different supplements are tested against it to see what brings balance and resolution.  This article gives a good overview of the history and process of the technology.

I've had bioenergetic testing done over the years when I was having mystery symptoms that seemed viral and it was very helpful in identifying pathogens. One odd symptom that I was able to resolve was tooth sensitivity that had no apparent cause. It was determined to be stemming from my submandibular lymph nodes, where a virus had apparently taken up residence. Lymphatic drainage provided some relief, but taking the remedies that scanned as appropriate was what resolved it quickly.

In the fall of 2016, I was approached by Balanced Health, a long distance bioenergetic testing company, to try out their Full Scan Kit, where you submit a saliva and hair or nail sample and they're able to use those to scan from. This is different than hair mineral analysis or saliva testing. I wasn't sure if this particular way of doing it would be legitimate, but I was curious to compare it to my past bioenergetic testing experiences and I rarely pass up a free chance to try something intriguing. They made it clear I was under no obligation to write a review, so this is not a sponsored post, just my honest, personal experience with the product. The Full Scan includes a lot of information, including the resonances of system/organ performance, nutrient balance, hormones, pathogens/toxins, and food/environmental sensitivities, as well as a regimen of recommended remedies. You can check out an example of a full scan here. 

Note: bioenergetic testing is not a replacement for traditional blood tests and diagnostics, but can provide helpful info in addition to traditional functional medicine testing methods. I was curious to see how the info it generated would match my known issues and past blood test results.

Here are some of my first scan results, from September, 2016. 

At the time, I had started having the tooth sensitivity issue again, after years of no issues. I was impressed to see that it pinpointed "teeth and jaw drainage" as one of my resonating issues. My adrenals have always been a weak area and, having Hashimoto's, it's not surprising that my thyroid showed up. My system showed a lot of chronic stress and weakness. 

Here is my most recent scan, from the beginning of February:

You can see that there is improvement across the board! In every scan I've had, my endocrine and nervous systems have been the slowest to improve, indicating that those are deep seated issues for me, which is not surprising, considering that I have an autoimmune endocrine disease and I've always had a sensitive nervous system, with an imbalanced parasympathetic response according to my EEG brain mapping back in my neurofeedback tech days. At the time of this scan, I had a little respiratory thing going on, which is reflected in my reduced lung energy score.


One area I was very curious about was what energetic food sensitivity resonances would show up. All of my scans have consistently shown soy, dairy/casein, and gluten as resonating sensitivities (these have also been confirmed as actual IgG sensitivities by Cyrex Labs tests), and various legumes always show up. They change slightly every time, but the pattern is there that indicates my body doesn't jive with legumes. Corn also always shows up and oats have frequently shown up. No nightshades, gums, spices, nuts/seeds have ever resonated as sensitivities and, indeed, I haven't had issues adding these back into my diet after AIP. Balanced Health states that if foods you haven't eaten in a long time show up consistently, they are likely more long-term rather than transient sensitivities.


Here are the sensitivities from my first scan:

Here is my recent scan:

I always test as benefitting from digestive enzyme support, so I've been faithfully taking Now Super Enzymes with meals, and the resonances of vitamin and mineral imbalances have disappeared, leaving just a few fatty acids and rotating amino acids that appear.



Balanced Health has a variety of scans and scan packages to choose from. The Full Scan, as well as the Balancing Scan (which has less info than the Full), and Remedy Scan (no info- just remedies) all come with a remedy protocol generated uniquely for you, based on which remedies bring about energetic resonance balance. I've found the remedies to be effective (especially the adrenal formulas I've used). I get most of the products directly from them, as the homeopathic and herbal blends are very specific and can't be found in other brands. If a simple supplement like a single amino acid shows up, I usually buy it elsewhere to save money, taking care to match the dosage. You can schedule a follow-up phone consult to discuss your results and answer any questions you might have. The consultants are the nicest folks and I always enjoy the consult and they will also ship kits overseas and work with you to find supplements locally.


I've been really pleased with the health progress I've made since utilizing the scans and remedies. I still have ups and downs, but have had more ups and seem to bounce back much faster. I recommend starting with a Full Scan to get a baseline measurement and you can alternate with less expensive scans like the Remedy Scan to make continuing the protocols less expensive.

I can say that I highly recommend Balanced Health and have had a great experience with them. I'm pleased to be able to offer my readers an affiliate discount code for $20 off of any scan- this code is ongoing, so you can use it any time you order a scan, not just the first time. :) The code is "prettyinprimal"


I hope that that you've enjoyed this post. I look forward to posting again sooner than later.

-Erin

PIP Goes AIP (Autoimmune Paleo)

Happy September!
When I last posted back in the beginning of April, I'd just started the Autoimmune Paleo Diet (AIP, for short), and I'd also just started working with a functional medicine practitioner. This whole process has been so interesting and encouraging for me. I'm now nearly 5 months into the process and I've seen some big improvements that weren't happening on Paleo/Primal. I needed to dig deeper into my autoimmunity and blood work and my diet needed some tweaking. This post is a longer one, so sit back and dig in.


Functional medicine lab work time!

It had been a long time since I'd had any labs run, so the first order of business was doing some comprehensive blood work, as well as a series of Cyrex Labs arrays to look at my gut lining, gluten sensitivity, potential gluten crossreactive foods and food sensitivities, chemical/heavy metal autoimmunity, and multiple tissue autoimmunity. It cost me a pretty penny, but I'm absolutely glad I did it. I also filled out extensive symptom and neurotransmitter profile questionnaires.

My blood work didn't reveal anything too scary: an electrolyte imbalance, and high-ish iron (not hemachromatosis), which my doc felt indicated inflammation. However, she was concerned with my low blood pressure. My blood pressure has always been pretty low and no doctors or practitioners, holistic or otherwise, have ever mentioned that it's not a good thing. My doc explained that when blood pressure is too low, nutrients and glucose aren't able to be effectively delivered into the tissues (perfusion), and extremities (like my brain) might not have sufficient circulation. In fact, she felt that my neurotransmitter questionnaire indicated poor brain circulation resulting in lowered neurotransmitter levels. Poor circulation can be the main cause of cold extremities and brain fog. Read more here.

She put me on a supplement to increase circulation and endothelial nitric oxide (eNOS), which also works to modulate the immune system, which she has me take first thing in the morning, along with an adrenal supportive cream, and then do a few minutes of intense exercise to produce an opioid response (which dampens inflammatory cytokine production) and increase circulation/perfusion. So, there really is something to the idea of "getting your blood moving!"

I am also on a general immune modulation regimen involving curcumin/resveratrol, glutathione cream, and a formula to help the body recycle glutathione, as well as neurotransmitter support for GABA, serotonin, and dopamine. And, of course, there are gut health supplements and probiotics. I won't go into the particulars of all of the supplements because they're particular to me and might not be right for someone else.

We're working on my circadian rhythms, which, admittedly, I've never been the best about. In the morning, after taking my supplements and doing a few minutes of intense exercise to increase perfusion/circulation, I go outside and get some sunshine and take some time to read, do qigong, hang out with my cat, get my bare feet on the earth. In the evenings, I turn down the lights and, if I'm watching tv, I wear some blue-blocker glasses to reduce blue light exposure, which can tell your brain not to release enough melatonin.

The Cyrex tests helped me to troubleshoot my diet. Even though I already knew gluten was a problem for me, the Wheat/Gluten Proteome array, which is the most comprehensive gluten test available, showed that I had antibodies to gamma-gliadin, and transglutaminse 2 and 3, so it's an autoimmune gluten reaction- not something to mess around with. It's kind of nice to have the lab tests to prove gluten sensitivity, with all the gluten-free backlash going around.
I also learned that I cross-react to casein and whey proteins as if they were gluten. About half of people with gluten sensitivity also react to casein because the proteins are so similar in structure. Thankfully, the rest of the foods tested didn't show many sensitivities- just potato and soy.

The chemical and metal autoimmunity panel came back fine, as did the leaky gut panel (I'd been on Seacure for awhile), but the multiple autoimmunity panel showed all kinds of things going on. It was kind of like opening Pandora's box and seeing where you could potentially develop future disease. Pretty intense!

I had low level ("predictive") antibodies to a lot of tissues: thyroid (not surprising, as I have Hashimoto's), parietal cells, phospholipids, osteocytes, synapsin, ASCA/ANCA (anti-saccharomyces yeast antibodies, found in Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis), and fibulin.
I also had much higher levels of antibodies to platelet glycoprotein, and alpha/beta tubulin, (the second one is commonly found in Hashimoto's). Whew!

It was a little overwhelming (and scary) seeing all of this, but if you know this information when the antibodies are only in the predictive range (which can indicate future disease development up to 10 years out), you can hopefully thwart the process from progressing. That's the thing about autoimmunity: it's progressive and rarely sticks to just one tissue, as my panel most definitely showed. I can't stress this enough: if you have any kind of autoimmune condition, you're likely to develop more if you don't intervene.



Now, on to the Autoimmune Paleo Diet front.

I started AIP at the beginning of April and I went all in immediately. I'd been dragging my feet about doing it, so having my doctor tell me to do it was a good thing. I'm much more compliant if the orders are coming from someone who is not me ;) For the first few days, I had a weird kind of fatigue and a hungry-no-matter-what feeling. It felt as though I was having food withdrawals (I'm going to guess from casein). It passed quickly, though. I got into the routine of not eating any dairy (except cultured ghee), eggs, nuts, seeds, alcohol, chocolate, and nightshades (grains and beans were already not something I ate on a regular basis). It was more of an adjustment than I initially realized, because so many condiments and spices I was used to using were now off limits. I've done Whole 30, but, let me tell you, Whole 30's got nothing on AIP! AIP is a whole other level of food vigilance. You get really used to it, though.

In order to cope with the restrictions and be kind to myself, I decided to add in some foods I don't normally eat a lot of- starchy foods like green and ripe plantains, more fruit than I'd normally eat, as well as a bit of dried fruit, which is something that normally never occurs to me to eat. Dried figs became my treat when I needed a treat. Or ripe plantains sauteed in casein-free ghee with cinnamon and homemade coconut milk caramel sauce.

After four solid months, I'm now in a phase of playing with some reintroductions. Some have gone well (black pepper, coffee, a few seed-based spices, small amounts of wine, and eggs), and some haven't. I've learned that chocolate, which I never noticed to be an issue before AIP, has consistently induced IBS symptoms the following day after every attempt I've made with it. Doesn't matter the form it's in- if it's chocolate, my gut will be rumbling the next day. This is disappointing, not to mention weird, since I've never had IBS before, but chocolate is on the list of IBS trigger foods. Sometimes you really have no idea how a food affects you until you haven't eaten it in months and your system has had a chance to settle down.

When I was on vacation a month ago, I jumped protocol and ate a lot of nightshades in a short amount of time due to eating out (not recommended, though!). I didn't notice any reactions to them, which was surprising because I also had my annual summer insomnia bout happening. For me, lack of sleep usually increases muscular inflammation, but I didn't notice any. I'd still like to give nightshades a proper reintroduction, though.

I hope that as I continue to heal I'll have more successful reintroductions. I was encouraged after chatting with some other AIP'ers who told me stories of failed initial reintroductions only to later be able to eat those foods with no problems. Maybe there's still hope for me and chocolate...



Improvements and progress:

So, after all of the tweaks, am I seeing improvements in my health? Why, yes, I am! I still have a way to go, but the improvements have been substantial enough that it's been more than enough motivation for me to continue on this particular path. Here are the improvements I've experienced:

-Better skin. My skin has always had some degree of breakouts and, though ditching gluten and going paleo eliminated my cystic acne, it didn't eliminate my breakouts, though they were certainly diminished. I felt ok about my skin, but there was room for improvement. On AIP, my skin clarity has improved quite a lot. I now rarely break out on my shoulder blades or across my chest (not that these were bad breakouts, but they were fairly frequent) and the breakouts I do get are so minor- just a tiny little blemish here and there- no angry red monsters.

-Weight loss. This has been really thrilling! Over the autumn and winter, I'd slowly gone up in weight and size and I wasn't eating any differently than I'd been eating. This followed the big autoimmune flare I had at the end of last summer. Even though I've never been truly overweight, when my weight starts climbing, I know it's usually related to my Hashimoto's. That's a scary thing, knowing that your weight is being controlled by your immune system and that little gland in your neck, rather than diet and exercise. So many of you with Hashimoto's know what I'm talking about! Anyway, this extra weight was not budging easily, despite adding more exercise.

After starting AIP, the weight slowly but surely melted off, at about a pound a week, without watching what I ate or even exercising much. Granted, it's not the fastest weight loss ever, but it was so exciting to feel like it was happening because my body was working better! As of today, I'm down 17 pounds, most of which I lost in the first 3 months. I've especially lost a lot of belly fat, which is where I tend to gain. I've lost 3.5 inches of belly fat. Whoohoo! Even though I have a little vanity belly fat I'd still like to lose, I'm now at a size and weight that feels good to me.

-Cellulite. Ok, so this one's pretty exciting. I've always had some cellulite, but it never bothered me until my late 20's when it suddenly got more severe. After going paleo, I was disappointed that I wasn't one of those women who magically lost their cellulite. In fact, it seemed to be getting more severe and spreading across a larger area of skin for the past couple of years. Even the skin on my inner forearms would dimple if I squeezed it. Having slender arms, this was disturbing, as if maybe there was an inflammatory process going on (my forearms certainly didn't have excess fat). I wondered if my collagen was breaking down, or if it could really be myxedema accumulating beneath my skin, or if my fat cells were just inflamed.

Anyway, even before I lost a significant amount of weight, I noticed that my legs were looking smoother. They've continued to improve to the point that now I'd say my cellulite is pretty mild. I feel so much better about it. My inner forearms no longer dimple when I pinch the skin. I don't know exactly what caused the improvement, but I'd guess that the combination of eliminating dairy and other inflammatory foods, weight loss, and collagen supportive foods like bone broths and collagen hydrolysate powder have all worked their magic together.

-Better muscle tone. This one is fascinating to me. I've never had naturally great muscle tone. I'm a classic ectomorph, long and lanky at 5'9". I've definitely been skinny-fat or just plain skinny. Muscle tone has always taken some work to come by. Switching from vegetarianism/veganism to paleo made it easier for me to gain muscle, which was nice. Now, for some reason, I seem to have better muscle tone despite infrequent workouts (though I do a fair amount of walking). I have muscle definition that I've only ever previously had after months of working out. I've never really had a line of muscle definition down the outside of my thigh before, and now I do! My guess is that my muscles weren't getting enough nutrients due to poor profusion and maybe poor absorption (remember those parietal cell antibodies? They attack HCl-producing cells in the stomach). At any rate, I'm really enjoying my sudden muscle tone.


-Energy. This is still touch-and-go, but I've started to have more energy. I noticed an increase after adding a thiamine (B1) supplement to my regimen, based on this article by Dr. Izabella Wentz, detailing a study that found that thiamine relieved fatigue in Hashimoto's patients. I still have off days and random drops in energy, but I've also had more really good days. I'm learning to monitor what kinds of things are likely to drain my energy, such as sitting in front of the computer too long, not eating enough calories, having draining conversations, stress, etc, and which are helpful for increasing my energy (time outside barefoot on the earth, getting to bed earlier, qigong, doing an inspiring activity...).


Room for improvement:

I'm committed to this path long term, which has really helped me to surrender to the process and let go of feeling like I should have reached a place of balanced health by now. I have my impatient moments and bad days, but it's ok.

As I progress, I'm hoping that my hormones will improve. I can tell I'm still low in progesterone by my often short cycles. There is still room for improvement with my sleep quality- it's not terrible, but I'd like to sleep more soundly. My doc thinks that some midbrain overactivation is probably at play regarding that. Even though I have nothing close to the kind of brain fog I used to have, my brain's clarity still could use a boost at times. Maybe once I stop making synapsin antibodies, my synapses can do their job properly.

Digestion/elimination is the final area I'd like to see more improvements. I am doing gut/brain exercises that restore signalling to the vagus nerve, which connects the brain and gut. These include gargling, singing loudly, and gagging (fun, I know!). All of these can get those signals moving again. I just have to remember to do them daily, which is easy to forget.


I'll be writing more about autoimmune healing and lifestyle in upcoming posts and I'll be posting recipes and reviewing some great books that I've read in recent months, including The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, and Why Isn't My Brain Working. Stay tuned!

-Erin

Primal Pasta?

When people ask me about my diet and they hear that I don't eat grains, that's when the slightly horrified (or not so slightly horrified) looks register on their faces and they exclaim "I could never give up grains/bread/pasta etc."

Well, I was just as into my grains as anyone, so it's doable, people! Further into this article, I am going to show you that it's not a spartan lifestyle of white-knuckled deprivation. I love food too much to live like that (but I also love my good health enough to make some adjustments!)

Why are grains worth cutting from your diet? As humans, we haven't been eating them for all that long and the mineral-depleting antinutrients, as well as starches and gluten they contain can function as troublemakers in our bodies.

Some things are obvious: Celiac disease, Crohn's Disease, IBS, etc. Some are less obvious: GERD, skin issues like eczema and acne, inflammation in joints and other parts of the body (I discovered that my excruciating monthly symptoms of cramps and IBS just up and disappeared
after cutting the grains from my diet) and even mental/emotional symptoms like anxiety can all be rooted in grain and gluten consumption. Here's a little more info on why grains aren't so awesome for us and here's a great article on how to quit them.

Now, on to the fun stuff: Pasta!

Are Primal and pasta mutually exclusive? No! Am I going to give you recipes for spiralized zucchini and tell you to pretend it's pasta (Rose likes zucchini "pasta" but I'm not a fan)? HECK NO! I'm going to give you a decent spaghetti alternative from a land far, far away: Japan! Meet the wonderful shirataki noodle!

Shiratake noodles are made from a tuber called konjac root (also called "yam" or "elephant yam"- not to be confused with regular yams. There is also a different version made with soy called "tofu shiratke". I don't use that form.) and they have nearly zero calories and carbohydrates. They also have no taste, so they can be used in a wide variety of dishes. I simply rinse off the sea-weedy smelling water they come packed in and boil them for a bit in generously salted water or broth to infuse them with a bit of flavor.

Shiratake can be found in the Japanese section of any Asian grocer and will be refrigerated. Some brands have a softer texture than others, which I prefer (shiratake can be a bit "springy" feeling when you eat it), so experiment with different brands to find your favorite.

While I don't have specific recipes to give you, I'll tell you about the two dishes pictured. The top pic is bison marinara- I used a low sugar organic marinara sauce (since I'm too lazy to make my own!) and added lots of ground bison and grated parmigiano reggiano (one of the world's great cheeses and not to be confused with parmesan!) Since the noodles themselves have almost no calories, it's important that the toppings are more calorically dense and nutrient rich.

The dish pictured below is pasta with an asiago cream sauce, sauteed morels and ramps, asparagus and baked salmon. It would also be wonderful with other veggies (summer squash, broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, etc).

Shiratake is fantastic in Asian noodle soups (it was made for this purpose and can be found in sukiyaki in Japanese restaurants.) and in Asian noodle dishes. I also pulse it in a food processor to "rice" it and serve with Thai coconut milk-based curries. It's great like that and my husband was pretty impressed with it!

I hope this opens up a whole new world of pasta possibilities for everyone. Mangia, mangia!!

-Erin

Overwhelmed by food allergies? Don't know where to start?

I am fortunate to be able to eat most Primal and Paleo foods with no issues (I do have to watch it with the cow's milk dairy) but others are not so lucky.

Some have egg and/or dairy intolerances, some cannot eat any sugars other than simple saccharides without digestive and other issues. Some people are sensitive to nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, spinach, potatoes, eggplant, etc) or to nuts.

So, what do you do when your sensitivities are ganging up on you or you are clueless in the kitchen or can't find the time or inspiration to make interesting meals that work with your limited diet? No need to fear; the Heart of Cooking is here!

Sarah Schatz, a personal chef who specializes in special diets, has come up with an ingenious service: Heart of Cooking, which is a monthly menu subscription service.

You can choose from a wide variety of highly specialized menu plans including a GAPS/Paleo/Elimination diet plan (there is even an egg-free version of said plan!)

If you or anyone you know has serious digestive issues like Celiac, Crohn's Disease or Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or has children with Autism Spectrum issues, the GAPS diet is really worth checking out. If you're already on a gluten-free diet, it's worth checking out. It goes way beyond gluten-free and aims to heal the damage done to the gut. It's also great for people suffering from migraines, mood disorders and a whole plethora of symptoms.

You can get a free week of the meat/seafood menu planner here. I'm definitely going to take advantage of that! Heart of Cooking also has a blog full of great recipes and information, so make sure to check it out.

How lucky we are to live in the Information Age, where people are so easily able to reach out and help each other through technology and where the click of a computer key can make our lives vastly easier!

-Erin