Simplifying the science that makes health work
Join me as I advance my own health
This website is an attempt to share with you what has helped me understand my body well enough to correct several serious situations. Even when we have guidance from the best doctor(s), I think it’s best to learn our own body and take charge as our own healing advocates.
Nobody knows our body as well as we do. Being able to better communicate what’s going on should only help the situation if we are working with the right people.
My interview with Seeking Health
I had a chance to sit down with Tom the Director of Education at Seeking Health for a quick chat about what theses guys are up to.
Join us and learn how Seeking Health can either make your healing journey easier or help you finally find a solution to your struggle.
So where do we start?
There are a few variables that influence a starting point.
- Is there one major issue
- Is the issue unknown
- Is this ongoing or new
- Are we still stressing all day
- Are we making an attempt at putting ourselves first
- Are we making big changes for big improvements
- Do we still have a lot of learning to do
- Do we understand enough to start moving forward
- Do we have the knowledge to dive in
Even when twins develop at the same time, they can have completely different biochemistry. With so much potential for differences, nobody knows our own body like we do.
Starting with a solid foundation
A lot of people replenish nutrients without testing. But knowing where our biochemistry has existing bottlenecks can make the situation much easier. Dr. Ben Lynch’s new DNA test makes it easy to focus where we need to.
This test does not hold our hand through healing, but it does give a better idea what to avoid and where to focus. Sometimes we are unnecessarily avoiding things that our body can handle while continuing to consume things that are really working against us. This StrateGene test helps highlight what our body is and is not good at processing.
Important Pathways
- Folate Pathway
- Methionine Pathway
- Serotonin
- Melatonin
- Dopamine
- Norepinephrine
- Epinephrine
- Biopterin
- Histamine
Features
- Researched Genetic Variants
- Pathway Diagrams
- Vitamins and Minerals
- Influencing Factors
147 Function SNPs
75 Genes
Seeking Health is dedicated to protecting your data and keeping it 100% in your control. Follow Dr. Ben Lynch and research his company for a bit and I think you will feel confident handing them your sensitive data.
I used to be against the idea of running a DNA test considering most companies sell the data, but after researching and working with Seeking Health, I am comfortable finally getting a better view of my internal wiring.
Support the basics
Did you know our cells use sodium and potassium to set themselves up to transfer nutrients? Electrolytes are almost like our cell’s wiring or circuit board. Understanding electrolytes and having an idea where my levels are is one of my main focuses. Without these, I am like a computer with broken circuit boards, or a phone with just enough battery to make an emergency call.
The Iodine Protocol includes sodium in the form of unrefined salt, as well as magnesium, which are a good start to electrolytes. But once we start getting more nutrients, we’ll need large amounts of potassium and a small amounts of calcium to move forward. Potassium and calcium should come from mainly food though with a few phases of supplementation to help raise levels. Read more about electrolytes on my iodine site https://whyiodine.com/electrolytes
Digest and eat real food
Eating 100% clean 100% of the time can be overwhelming. But understanding clean eating is very important. I learned a lot about food and hidden ingredients by doing a 30 day elimination diet called Whole30 by reading a book called It Starts with Food. I wrote about toxicity and eating clean on my iodine site.
A section on Detox @ whyiodine.com
Support digestive issues
Without proper stomach acid we cannot digest B12, protein and other nutrients. 1 Our food also ends up making it to areas of our gut at the wrong pH which offsets the various environments of our gut. 2 One aspect of our bile is to neutralize our stomach acid 3, but if our stomach acid is already low, then we cannot release enough bile or we’ll lower it too much and offset digestion even more.
When our stomach acid is low, we may increase our chances of an infection called h. pylori, 4 which can attach to our stomach lining and alter our ability to maintain stomach acid.5 6 7 This infection can be difficult to get rid of due to easily sharing it with people we share environments with. 8 9
Over time we can end up with imbalances in our biome like SIBO etc.10 The wrong bacteria can turn our food into toxins. 11 Sometimes this can be resolved with proper diet and probiotics but other times it can potentially require antibiotics or similar attention. 12
Without proper fat digestion, which could just be due to low stomach acid, the oxalates in the plants we eat can end up in our blood and tissue, 13 which is being connected to various autoimmune related conditions 14 as well as various thyroid conditions. 15 Once we’re focused on stomach acid and our gut isn’t creating toxins, supporting fat digestion with ox bile and digestive enzymes can be handy.
More about Stomach Acid
Finding the right fuel for the job
Now that I’m able to digest, absorb and transport nutrients, I can focus on all of the various nutrients my cells need in order to power and rebuild themselves.
By researching the symptoms that have been holding me back for decades, or currently plaguing my health, I was able to slowly reverse-engineer my biological configuration(aka genes). Using individual supplements, I was able to learn a lot about how my body functions. But over time I eventually located a handful of products that allow me to move forward very easily.
After several years of various diets, supplements and protein powders, I tried Arbonne’s 30-day Healthy Living and was amazed by the results. For less than $5 per day, I replaced hours of food prep and several supplements with nutrition that worked much better for my body.
I started Arbonne in January 2020 and have only gone a few weeks without their protein powder since. I slowly use and replace some of the other components from the 30-day kit, but for the most part I just use the protein powder as a nutritional boost.
Arbonne is a MLM(Multi Level Marketing) company, which gives me an incentive to share their products with you. But that is not why I share their products. I don’t share any of this information in an attempt to generate funds, but it helps pay for my webservers as well as support the time I put into all of this. If Arbonne’s clean ingredients and the success I have experienced with their products sounds intriguing to you, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or in the Iodine for Beginners group and I will help you find the best products for you to get started.
This short video on my Facebook page Sick of Tired explains how the nutrients of this powder line up with and run my nutritional engine that keeps my health moving forward.
More nutrients to make more cells
Now that I am digesting, absorbing, transporting and consuming all of these nutrients, I can start really pushing into detox and rebuilding cells.
If taking this daily causes me anxiety etc, I need more time in nature, basic nutrition, reduced toxic input/environment and a focus on infections. Sometimes taking a day off, or a few days off allows my body to catch up. After doing that a few times, I can sometimes get ahead of this initial curve without any other work.
Once I’m digesting and methylating well, I’m providing my body with most of what it needs to run it’s metabolism. Without this core step running well, it’s like a car with a weak engine, or a blacksmith or pizza maker with a weak oven. We need a strong metabolism to help us fuel everything else we need to do.
Our metabolism is what generates our energy, but its synchronized with our overall health. Without digestion and electrolytes to transport a good balance of nutrients, we don’t have anything to metabolize. But without metabolizing well, there is no use for whatever various nutrients we’re getting.
For the pizza maker to cook and sell his pizza properly, he had to sell pizza last month and pay the fuel bill to keep the oven running. We’re doing the same thing in a different way. If we try to cheat the system long enough, it will most likely eventually crash which requires a lot of intervention to correct.
Time for detox
If dense packages of nutrients similar to my Arbonne shakes or Multivitamins mentioned above are causing me to continually feel better and go through digestive changes that are commonly considered negative, but allow me to feel better and remove old stuff, I continue taking them and try slowly adding more if that continues to help. Most people find these nutrients that work and become scared as their body and digestion change into situation that is commonly seen as a negative. But an odd aspect to healing is that sometimes healing reactions look like the opposite. We just have to pay attention to how we feel.
Once things level off and I am not able to find any nutrients to cause me to move forward with detox, I add some iodine or increase my dose in an attempt to knock something loose.
This is similar to pruning a tree or plant. The iodine allows us to prune broken or clogged cells with a method called apoptosis 16 17 18. If our digestion and metabolism are working well enough, we can handle a certain amount of toxic cell pruning. But this process takes time and our body is going to attempt rebuilding cells where we’ve been pruning.
We really need to appreciate what our cells are doing here. First they disassemble themselves to a degree and drop their components and toxins into our bloodstream. Now other cells in our liver & kidneys etc attempt grabbing these toxins and reducing them into something that can safely be excreted via sweat, breath, pee or poo.
As awesome as this whole process is, it takes time and we need to keep the system in balance. These processes require a lot of energy, and can easily burn up our nutritional reserves. If we have major clogs of sorts like mega high histamines or oxalates, or several dirty genes, this process can be very touchy. Sometimes these roadblocks require very specific focus, but restarting at the top of this page and repeating the process should allow us to move forward as long as we can get this type of nutrition without reactions.
Continue Reading
Throughout what I’ve mentioned above and in other pages of this site are links to other websites or various types of content I’ve created. I do this in my free time so things aren’t always 100% organized, which means you may need to dig a little.
Some people have mentioned that this book is a little complex. But if you are able to breeze through a lot of what I talk about on my websites and videos, you will most likely benefit greatly. Even if you are struggling to understand, chipping away at this book should be helpful to anyone.
Dirty Genes by Dr. Ben Lynch at Seeking Health is a very important read. If more people understood the contents of this book, our overall health would be completely different.
Pass it on!
I used to think I was indestructible. But in my early 30’s, I fell for a trojan horse disguised as a free seasonal medical intervention that I assumed was safe and effective because I never researched the subject.
Within a year I was waking up on the floor having seizures as well as forgetting what I was talking about dozens of times a day and slowly heading into chronic fatigue.
What you have read on this page, and the info contained in my websites, Facebook groups and videos is an attempt to pay-it-forward. I spent years researching, going through trial and error, as well as lots of highs and lows before I finally pieced all of this together.
I wish I came across my own info when I was just getting started with natural healing. Help me help more people by sharing this page with others. Although this info is available all over the internet and in books etc, I do my best to make it available to more people that may have different mindsets and beliefs.
Not to brag or toot my own horn, but the info I’ve pulled together is usually only available after paying someone a good bit of money, or otherwise spending years researching things and going through lots of the same struggles I did. People that realize this benefit greatly from it.
Footnotes
- National Institutes of Health Vitamin B12 - https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-%20%20Consumer
- Associations of the microbiome and esophageal disease - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6702393/
- Bile - Encyclopaedia Britannica - https://www.britannica.com/science/bile
- Studies on the interrelation between Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, Helicobacter pylori, and proton pump inhibitor therapy - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8978346/
- Secretagogue-specific effects of interleukin-1 on gastric acid secretion - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1681735/
- Mucosal tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and interleukin-8 production in patients with Helicobacter pylori infection - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8036458/
- Effect of a Campylobacter pylori protein on acid secretion by parietal cells - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2568521/
- H. Pylori: Is it Contagious? - Healthline - https://www.healthline.com/health/h-pylori-contagious
- H. Pylori Transmission and Spread of Infection - https://publichealth.arizona.edu/outreach/health-literacy-awareness/hpylori/transmission
- How Low Stomach Acid Contributes to SIBO - by Dr. John Gannage - https://integrative-medicine.ca/low-stomach-acid-sibo/
- Hydrogen Sulfide SIBO - https://www.drelenaklimenko.com/hydrogen-sulfide-sibo/
- 4 Facts About SIBO the Internet Keeps Getting Wrong - https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2018-06-21/4-facts-about-sibo-the-internet-keeps-getting-wron
- Calcium Oxalate Stones - National Kidney Foundation - https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/calcium-oxalate-stone
- The Damaging Effects of Oxalates on the Human Body - https://www.urologyofva.net/articles/category/healthy-living/3740469/the-damaging-effects-of-oxalates-on-the-human-body
- Oxalate in the Human Thyroid Gland - https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cclm.1993.31.9.559/html
- Molecular iodine induces caspase-independent apoptosis in human breast carcinoma cells involving the mitochondria-mediated pathway - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16679319/
- The Extrathyronine Actions of Iodine as Antioxidant, Apoptotic, and Differentiation Factor in Various Tissues - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3752513/
- High iodine effects on the proliferation, apoptosis, and migration of papillary thyroid carcinoma cells as a result of autophagy induced by BRAF kinase - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332219322449