Could a critter be the reason for your symptoms?

OK, in technical terms the critter is referred to as a parasite.

A parasitic infection could be linked to so many symptoms and can go undiagnosed.

A parasite infection is closely linked to immune health, if the immune system is strong and healthy, it could easily rid the body of the parasite naturally as nature intended. However most immune systems are comprised therefore leaving the body less able to handle such an invasion.

@sonance

 So whilst it may seem like the critter is to blame, it is not really, the real culprit is the health of the gut where 70-90% of immune cells reside, so focusing solely on removal of the parasite is counter productive without looking at the core of the issue which is the gut and immune system in conjunction.

Some warning signs of a parasite infection (but not limited to):

• Chronic digestive issues from top to bottom

  • poor or inconsistent bowel movements

  • vomiting

• Autoimmune disorders

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Body aches

• Headaches

• Eye aches

• Behavioural changes

• General malaise or fatigue

 There are a plethora different species at play most of which can easily be detected via a poo test from your local GP.

 Keeping in mind, whilst removing the parasite may be successful via natural or pharmaceutical methods, the body still requires a level of rebuilding to ensure the problem does not persist or return.

Foods to include which are considered anti-parasitic:

• Garlic – this can even used as a suppository if you are game

• Coconut oil

• Apple cider vinegar

• Hazelnuts

• Pumpkin seeds

The purpose of these foods are to create an environment that the parasites do not want to be in. It is also beneficial to eliminate refined sugars, processed foods to speed up the eliminating process and create an environment for healing.

You quick take away action if suspect there could be a parasite:

1. Clean up the diet

2. Include anti-parasitic foods

3. Remove refined sugar and processed foods

4. If symptoms persist, consult your local GP to do a poo test or work closely with an integrative or functional practitioner.

Chantal is a Certified and Accredited Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a special interest helping stressed and overwhelmed mums and women to fully transform their physical and emotional health.

Gut Healing Foods

Ok, ok, you get it, the health of the gut plays in a humungous role in terms of your physical and mental health.

You also get that you IF you are suffering with any sort of symptom, there is an issue with the gut, and that there is some work to do heal it. From what you’ve seen or heard, it’s all rather complex and just too hard.

The real truth of the matter is that it is not complex.

So what are the gut healing foods?

• Whole and real food is step #1. It really cannot get much simpler than this. Cut out the crap and start eating real and wholefood. This by default will start healing the gut as the body no longer needs to deal with additives, colours and preservatives.

• Bone Broth – this is a liquid containing stewed bones and connective tissues. An assortment of vegetables, herbs and spices can also be added to further boost the nutrient profile.

Benefits of bone broth:

• Highly nutritious as it is rich in calcium, magnesium and phosphorous, collagen. If the bones you are using also contain marrow, then the broth will also be rich in iron, vitamins A and K, fatty acids, selenium, zinc and manganese.

•    Protective to joints – this is due to the gelatin, which breaks down into collagen in the body

•    May help reduce inflammation and heal the gut. This is due to the amino acid glutamine that is present within bone broth

• Helps with a better night sleep. Once again due to the amino acid profile of the broth, in particular glycine. This alone is enough reason to have a copious supply available!

• Probiotic Foods – Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for you, especially your digestive system and typically referred to ‘beneficial’ bacteria. Incorporating probiotic rich into your diet it one of the easiest ways to rebalance your gut bacteria, not to mention far cheaper than probiotic supplements that can be inferior in quality.

  • Types of probiotic foods:

    • Dairy products: such as aged cheeses (cheddar, gouda and mozzarella)

    • Kefir

    • Traditional butter milk

    • Yoghurt

  • Non Dairy:

    • Non diary yoghurts

    • Kimchi

    • Kombucha

    • Miso

    • Natto (fermented soyabean)

    • Sauerkraut

    • Tempeh

    • Water or brined cured olives          

• Prebiotic foods – these are foods that actually feed the “beneficial” live bacteria to promote their growth. This is done via the fermentation process when it reaches the large colon.

  •         Foods rich in prebiotic fibre:

    •         Chicory root

    •         Onions and garlic

    •         Oatmeal

    •         Wheat bran

    •         Asparagras

    •         Dandelion greens

    •         Jerusalem artichoke

    •         Barley

    •         Apple with skin

    •         Foods rich in resistant starch

Depending on your symptoms, it may beneficial to remove a number of other foods for a short period of time to enable faster healing to occur such as:

• Gluten

• Grains

• Dairy

• Sugar

• Nuts

• Eggs

• Fish

Foods containing naturally occurring chemicals such as amines, glutamines, salicylates and oxalates.

When you start removing these types of foods, you start entering the world of therapeutic nutritional protocols such as GAPS, Paleo, AIP, Fodmaps etc

These protocols are not to be entered into lightly and are best performed with specialist assistance and support.

Steps to heal the gut:

1. Remove processed and packaged food and any known trigger foods

2. Replace with real and wholefood

3. Restore with plenty of broth, probiotic and prebiotic foods

 If you are feeling overwhelmed with the concept of healing the gut and unsure where is best to start, then please send me an email to info@chantalkhoury.com.au or send me a message via my contact page to see if any of my programs are fit for you and your family.

Chantal is a Certified and Accredited Nutrition and Wellness Coach with a very special interest helping mums restore the health of their family using healing nutrition and transformational wellness practices.

Skin Rashes in Children - When to be concerned

Skin rashes in young children can occur for a multitude of reasons such as infections, heat, allergies, food intolerances or immune system disorders. Not only can they occur for a plethora of reasons, however they can also greatly differ in appearance.

Skin rashes usually appear red, flat or raised bumps, blisters, welts or a combination of all either localised to one part of the part of the body or multiple parts.

Common Skin rash Types in Children:

Cellulitis:

This is an infection of the deeper layers of skin and underlying tissue. The affected area is often be red, painful, swollen and hot. It mostly affects the legs but can occur anywhere on the body. This is usually accompanied by a fever.

Chickenpox:

This is a viral illness and is most common in children under 10. It appears as a rash of itchy spots, that turns into fluid filled blisters. These crust over to form scabs which eventually drop off.

Some children only have a few spots, whilst for others it covers their entire body. As it is viral, treatment is typically rest with plenty of nourishing foods. Calamine lotion, cooling gels and oat baths are known to help the relieve the itching.

Eczema:

This is a longer-term issue that causes the skin to become itchy, red, dry and cracked. The most common type is ATOPIC, which means that the skin is not in contact with the allergen

The eczema rash commonly develops behind the knees, elbows, neck, ears and eyes.

Whilst a variety of creams are effective at managing the symptoms, Treatment for eczema requires a multi-dimensional approach which includes specific healing eczema diet protocol, managing lifestyle and environmental factors.

A so-called ‘eczema diet ‘can be used as a first step in the process of healing.

Hand, foot and mouth disease :

This is a very common, contagious infection that causes mouth ulcers, spots and blisters on the palms of hands and soles of the feet.

It is most common in younger children under 10, however can affect older children and adults.

There is no cure for this skin condition other than rest and soft nourishing immune boosting food to help the body fight the virus. Due to the contagious nature, it would be best to keep our child out of nursery or school until it clears.

Measles :

This is highly infectious and most commonly affects younger children, however can affect older children and adults too.

The rash often starts on the head or upper neck and then spreads to the rest of the body. Accompanying is the rash are cold symptoms a fever.

The rash and symptoms will usually resolve itself within 7-10 days. Once again, treatment is predominantly rest, plenty of fluids and wholesome nutrition.

Urticaria (hives) :

Also known as weals, welts or nettle rash. They appear raised, itchy that can affect one part of the body or spread across large areas.

Hives occur when a trigger causes high levels of histamine and other chemical messengers to be released in the skin.

Common triggers include allergens such as food, latex, medicines and physical factors such as heat or exercise.

Quite often this type of rash is short lived.

Heat Rash

You can also get a skin rash from heat stress

The effects of heat stress can quickly spiral out of control, so here are some signs of heat stress to look out for:

• Headache

• Nausea

• Dizziness

• Weakness

• Irritability

• Thirst

• Heavy sweating

Skin Rash Causes:

As outlined above, there can be a variety of skin rash causes.

Skin rashes can be caused by virus, allergy, fungus, autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, lupus or rosacea.

Some skin rashes can be caused by a food allergy, food sensitivities such as a dairy intolerance and a useful skin rash treatment in this case is a healthy eating and lifestyle approach.

Summary – Skin Rashes

In summary, most rashes are viral and will resolve themselves in time.

The biggest complaint is the itchy nature of the rash.

Measles requires urgent medical attention and eczema requires more of a longer-term approach to healing.

Chantal is a Certified & Accredited Nutrition & Wellness Coach who has a very special in helping mums transform the health of their family through nutrition and transformational wellness practices.

I think my child has a dairy intolerance, what can I do about it?

If you have concerns about a dairy intolerance in your child, this article explains the symptoms and what to do next.

You notice your child does not seem right after having their morning cereal, they become really irritable and complain of a really sore tummy?

You suspect that their love of milk and cheese could be the culprit, but you don’t know what to do about it?

Dairy intolerance is becoming more and more common today with little of the population being able to tolerate it without side effects. Not only that, most babies, toddlers are children are struggling to cope with dairy.

Common dairy intolerance symptoms in children include:

• Liquid green frothy stools

• Irritable

• Stomach aches

• Bloating passing a lot of gas

• Not putting on weight

• Nappy rash

• hives

These symptoms present themselves within 30 min to 2 hours of consuming milk or a milk-based product.

The problem is not the beloved milk or cheese, but that the child is lacking a vital enzyme called lactase to digest the sugar within the milk.

Just to be clear, a dairy intolerance is different to a dairy allergy. With a dairy intolerance the person does not produce the needed enzyme to digest the naturally occurring sugar within the milk, whereas with an allergy, the person cannot break down the protein casein.

Dairy Intolerance Treatment

Just because they are not tolerating a milk based product, doesn’t mean that it is ALWAYS going to be that. With a little bit of work, time and patience, it can be resolved.

Here is a basic treatment protocol to deal with dairy intolerance symptoms in children.

• Remove ALL forms of dairy for a period of 2 weeks and assess the difference. If symptoms greatly improve, then you have your answer whether dairy is the culprit or not.

• A symptom management approach would be to give them an over the counter digestive aid with the lactase in it to assist with the digestion. Provide the digestive aid before a main meal or snack to prevent any symptoms.

• Resolve the intolerance once and for all by resolving the root cause of the dairy intolerance, i.e. the gut.

More than likely the gut bacteria is unbalanced and leaky which is not allowing the body to produce the needed enzyme naturally. Once you correct the microbiome imbalance and seal a leaky gut, the body once again can produce the needed enzyme to digest the sugar in the milk and your dairy intolerance problem is resolved.

In Summary

To sum it all up, you need to decide whether you just want to manage symptoms or actually resolve the dairy intolerance through a proper treatment plan. Even removing all dairy and switching to non dairy substitutes are still symptom management approaches and will become harder to manager in the longer term.

My recommendation would always be to resolve the root cause of the symptom, in this case an intolerance to dairy. The approach I prefer is quite common in functional medicine, however I also have on own my spin it, it is the 4R Approach. Using this approach, we work at the root cause level which are:

• Nutrition & Gut

• Toxicity

• Mindset, stress management and emotional wellbeing

• Specialist support to fast track results

 Chantal is a Certified and Accredited Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a very special interest in helping overwhelmed mums create thriving health & wellness for their family using nutrition and transformational wellness practices.