Excitotoxins are chemical compounds that damage nerve cells. Long term exposure to excitotoxins can be a contributing factor in the development of spinal cord injuries, stroke, traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) such as Multiple sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Alzheimer's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, Alcoholism and Huntington's disease, hypoglycemia and brain seizures.
They come in a variety of forms. The most common are found in processed or package foods: glutamates (MSG), and aspartame. They affect the nervous system by creating lesions or diseased tissues inhibiting normal cellular and organ function. As a result, they can play an active role in chronic diseases and the insidious progress of a number of pathological disease processes in the body.
The majority of patients have various levels of excitotoxicty. Consequently, it is imperative that their treatments involve a detoxification of these substances, as well as others, that prevent their bodies from returning to optimal health. Another aspect is limiting or avoiding exposure to these substances in the diet.
Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can provide treatment strategies that allow patients a safe method for not only purging toxins from the body but also restoring vibrant health to the body’s organs and nervous system.
Meridian Harmonics
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Prolonging Diseases with Food
Why is it that most people are still so resistant to eating a healthier diet? I’m convinced that it is due to the fact that certain artificial flavoring and coloring that “enhances” the tastes of nutritionally substandard processed foods actually is addictive.
It is no different than being addicted to recreational or pharmaceutical drugs, sugar, dairy products, chocolate, excessively spicy foods and fried or greasy foods. In working with patients, I often find they are eating foods and chemically enhanced food products that are actually contributing or prolonging their particular signs and symptoms of disease. Over the last fifty years, food processors have steadily increased the amount of MSG added to foods. One of the primary and most consistent effects of MSG and other excitotoxins is triggering "an insulin/adrenalin/fat storage/food craving response." That response is what causes the, "I'm hungry again an hour after I eat fast food," quandary. It is also why some of us crave potato chips and other snack foods that contain monosodium glutamate, even though we're full. MSG abnormally increases the weight of the adrenal gland increasing the levels of adrenal adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin in the body leading to development of Type II Diabetes.
MSG causes us to crave the foods processed with MSG-and a majority of processed and prepackaged foods now contain monosodium glutamate. In fact, monosodium glutamate is crucial ingredients in low-fat and non-fat foods, since much of the natural flavors are lost when processed. One characteristic of obesity induced by excitotoxins is that it doesn't appear to depend on food intake. This explains why some people cannot diet away their obesity – it’s a toxicity problem. Food labels hide MSG by renaming them: natural pork flavoring, bouillon, natural beef flavoring, whey protein concentrate, whey protein, whey protein isolate, maltodextrin, ultra-pasteurized, barley malt, protease, protease enzymes, soy sauce, soy protein, anything protein fortified, natural flavor(s), seasonings.
The pharmaceutical industry also uses MSG, and sugar, to improve the taste of some otherwise bitter drugs. Monosodium glutamate was used in powdered baby formula until the 1960's when it was determined MSG had detrimental neurological impact on the brain of infants.
Often MSG reactivity is called the "Fast Food Syndrome" because of the physical symptoms that some people often experience after eating fast food. Some of the most common symptoms of MSG sensitivity or allergy include headache, sometimes called MSG headache, flushing, numbness or tingling in or around the mouth, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, muscle tightening, or lightheadedness, migraines and even mood changes.
The solution to many of our modern diseases is two-fold: 1) patient education to empower them with specialized knowledge, and 2) natural and holistic treatment strategies that treat the disease process at its root rather than “band-aiding” it. This is precisely the goal of Chinese Medicine.
Meridian Harmonics
It is no different than being addicted to recreational or pharmaceutical drugs, sugar, dairy products, chocolate, excessively spicy foods and fried or greasy foods. In working with patients, I often find they are eating foods and chemically enhanced food products that are actually contributing or prolonging their particular signs and symptoms of disease. Over the last fifty years, food processors have steadily increased the amount of MSG added to foods. One of the primary and most consistent effects of MSG and other excitotoxins is triggering "an insulin/adrenalin/fat storage/food craving response." That response is what causes the, "I'm hungry again an hour after I eat fast food," quandary. It is also why some of us crave potato chips and other snack foods that contain monosodium glutamate, even though we're full. MSG abnormally increases the weight of the adrenal gland increasing the levels of adrenal adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin in the body leading to development of Type II Diabetes.
MSG causes us to crave the foods processed with MSG-and a majority of processed and prepackaged foods now contain monosodium glutamate. In fact, monosodium glutamate is crucial ingredients in low-fat and non-fat foods, since much of the natural flavors are lost when processed. One characteristic of obesity induced by excitotoxins is that it doesn't appear to depend on food intake. This explains why some people cannot diet away their obesity – it’s a toxicity problem. Food labels hide MSG by renaming them: natural pork flavoring, bouillon, natural beef flavoring, whey protein concentrate, whey protein, whey protein isolate, maltodextrin, ultra-pasteurized, barley malt, protease, protease enzymes, soy sauce, soy protein, anything protein fortified, natural flavor(s), seasonings.
The pharmaceutical industry also uses MSG, and sugar, to improve the taste of some otherwise bitter drugs. Monosodium glutamate was used in powdered baby formula until the 1960's when it was determined MSG had detrimental neurological impact on the brain of infants.
Often MSG reactivity is called the "Fast Food Syndrome" because of the physical symptoms that some people often experience after eating fast food. Some of the most common symptoms of MSG sensitivity or allergy include headache, sometimes called MSG headache, flushing, numbness or tingling in or around the mouth, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, muscle tightening, or lightheadedness, migraines and even mood changes.
The solution to many of our modern diseases is two-fold: 1) patient education to empower them with specialized knowledge, and 2) natural and holistic treatment strategies that treat the disease process at its root rather than “band-aiding” it. This is precisely the goal of Chinese Medicine.
Meridian Harmonics
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