Health Blog by YinTeing

Here are some signs that your body’s toxin levels may be a bit too high due to our lifestyle. You could see that many of the factors below are very much related to your digestive system.

1. Constant lethargy

If you feel tired, especially after meals, it could mean that your body’s digestive system is sluggish.  Factors that could contribute to it:

• habit of taking cold/iced drinks especially with meals.
• insufficient intake of fiber such as vegetable or fruits
• high intake of fatty food, heavy meals, processed food- you make the body work too hard
• insufficient exercise- sedentary lifestyle (physically inactive) causes everything in our body to be sluggish- toxins as the result of chemical byproducts and digestive process does not get removed and important nutrients does not get transported to the cells.
• taking laxatives- it makes the peristalsis movement sluggish and in the long run, damages the digestive track

2. Constipation

Clearing our bowels daily is important- as the bowels are waste product that our body is looking to eliminate. If you do not take the time to clear your bowels everyday, take enough fiber and drink lots of water, you would suffer from constipation. Worse still, the body will reabsorb the toxins as it attempt to absorb water from the bowels, causing this toxins to be recirculated in your system.

Read further on how to battle constipation.

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 Dr Joseph J Sweere, in his book, Golden Rules for Vibrant Health in Body, Mind, and Spirit: A Holistic Approach to Health and Wellness, wrote about the significance of recurring dreams/nightmares and the health message that your higher consciousness may be trying to bring you.  

Personally, I’ve had recurring dreams for about 10 years- leaving me with fatigue problems and inability to wake up. When I left a successful job that had clashed with my core values, and face up to things that I’ve been subsciously running away from (and what I felt I was placed on this earth to do), the nightmares subsized, and I’ve been sleeping better. With that, I am able to slowly transition from a night owl to a morning person.

The book contained a lot of advice and tips on areas of complementary healing, and the not-so obvious cause of diseases and health conditions like cancer, stroke, arthritis (he mentioned that if an arthritis person is more forgiving, the pain would be reduced), etc. Below is a case study on one of his patient (I type almost word for word), found on pages 51- 53 of the book:

Interpreting Dreams

Louise had been referred to me for arthritis and the degeneration in her spine, hips, knees, and ankles that had become progressively more disabling every year. She moved very slowly and was in obvious pain as she entered my consultation room. Using two sturdy wooden canes to help support her every step, this large-boned, significantly overweight woman could barely fit between armrests of the generously sized chair next to my desk. In reviewing the comprehensive history form Louise had filled out, I noted she wrote that, in addition to having advanced stages of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis for many years, she also had bloating, congestive heart failure, extreme fatigue, fluid retention, high blood pressure, long standing constipation, and shortness of breath. She listed ten separate prescription drugs that she took, along with several over-the-counter pain relievers. Louise said she almost never drank water, but did drink about 10 cups of coffee a day and two or three cans of diet soda. She needed the caffeine, she said, to help her stay awake because she was always tired. She simply was not getting enough sleep due to the same recurring nightmare, a nightmare that she had experienced many times over a forty-year span.

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According to the report in The Star paper dated 27 Oct 09, bowel cancer is now the most common cancer in Malaysian men. For women, it is ranked third after breast and cervical cancers.

 The increasing rate is attributed to:

• Affluent and sedentary lifestyle
• Lack of dietary fibers and physical activities
• Other risk factors: chronic inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal polyps and strong family history.

It is now proven that being active physically and higher intake of vegetables and fruits plays a vital role not only on overall health but prevention of certain cancers. Since digestive system cancers such as bowel cancers are getting more common, and largely preventable if there is one opts for a healthy lifestyle, why not make it a firm resolution for change?

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Is constant motion or travelling sickness disrupt your dream of being a traveller? You may not look forward to travelling, especially visiting highlands and the curvy roads because you may be throwing up your guts during the trip. Some would suffer while travelling on the plane or even on long road journeys.

I will always remember in one of my team building trips years ago, we charter a bus to a famous beach, Cherating located on the East Coast. Before we went, lunch was provided- there were lots of fried food like fried bread with tuna, fried sausages, and fried chicken- all which I helped myself happily (I used to love fried food and in the good old days, there’s always problem with the self-control).

How I suffered during the 6 hours bus trip there- my entire face turned pale, and all I wanted to do was to throw up the food. When they stopped at a rest area, I tried to throw up but only a small fraction of the food came out- because by the time the food already left my stomach and is in my intestines. Needless to say, I suffer and have always have strong reservations when it comes to travelling.  For a few years, travelling never interest me- just thinking of the potential motion sickness would put me off.

Food like this spells disaster for those with weak stomach prior to travelling

The same thing also happened years ago when I was studying for my degree at another state before I began working. The bus journeys used to cause me severe stomach spasms and pain.  Somehow, my system will suck in the cold air-con from the bus like a vacuum and these wind seemed to be playing and moving around my intestines- causing intense and sharp pain.

Eventually, I broke through these limitations- by taking care of my digestive health and improve my circulation. This change had enabled me to travel for a year throughout different places in Thailand, sometimes via the most uncomfortable and creaky buses through hills and highlands.

When travelling, I take special precautions to minimize motion sickness and wind/stomach spasms:

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I’ve actually been dilligently drinking water on an empty stomach first thing in the morning (after visiting the loo) for a few years. I did this before brushing my teeth. Together with some guidelines from my personal experience writen under earlier articles: Cures for Stomach Ailments that Works, and drinking water on an empty stomach, I find that a lot of stomach ailments that I used to suffer such as stomach cramps, spasms and wind have drastically been reduced- nowadays I get pains only if I eat too much of processed carbs (with no adequate intake of fiber, ie fruits and vegetables), drinking cold water and skipping the gym and extreme stress.

The following is a forwarded email that I’ve received on the benefits of drinking water on an empty stomach. I am not sure who have writen it but I find that the article is very beneficial.

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It is popular in Japan today to drink water immediately after waking up every morning. Furthermore, scientific tests have proven  its value. We publish below a description of use of water for our readers. For old and serious diseases as well as modern illnesses the water treatment had been found successful by a Japanese medical society as a 100% cure for the following diseases:
Headache, body ache, heart system, arthritis, fast heart beat, epilepsy, excess fatness, bronchitis asthma, TB, meningitis, kidney and urine diseases, vomiting, gastritis, diarrhea, piles, diabetes, constipation, all eye diseases, womb, cancer and menstrual disorders, ear nose and throat diseases.

METHOD OF TREATMENT
1. As you wake up in the morning before brushing teeth, drink 4 x 160ml glasses of water
2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minute
3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.
4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours

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7Recently Abbott ran an interesting advertisement to bring awareness the Helicobacter pylori in the stomach that can cause the following symptoms:

• feeling tired without an obvious reason
• burning, cramping or hunger like pain in the stomach area, often between meals and in the early morning hours
• black tarry or bloody stools (which means there is a bleeding ulcer)
• nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite.

The company suggested that if you suffer from the signs above, you may want to consider getting a H.pylori Serology test done at participating clinics. 

The ad also mentioned that H. pylori causes discomfort, ulcers and increase the risk of stomach cancer by 6 fold.  Like the connection between HPV virus and uterus cancer, if you show the above signs, you may also want to get a test done as well as adopting healthy eating habits. If you have been found to have the bacteria, at least the bacteria can be controlled by appropriate treatment. 

Just on 10 July 09, The Star paper reported that the Galas state assemblyman aged 45 has been diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer.  Cancer related to the digestive system are getting to be more common by the way largely due to dietary habits and a sedentary lifestyle. A gastric attack or constant stomach spasms and pain are considered normal and a by-product of a hectic and demanding corporate lifestyle- but if the pain is happening too often, it is wise to really consider getting a check-up done, exercising and eating more fiber and less processed/fatty foods. 

Further reading on the web on Helicobacter pylori:

• Helicobacter Foundation- foundation that provides the latest news pertaining to diagnosis, treatment and clinical perspective
• Helicobacter pylori as defined in Wikipedia
• Getting to know H. pylori – previous article in The Star

Coffee should be drunk and not inserted up your posterior- Dr Albert Lim (oncologist)

I have heard people recommending the use of coffee enema as a form of detoxification. Cancer patients are told to use the treatment to detox the toxins from the body. Pardon my ignorance but I have no idea that coffee enema treatment means shoving a tube from the anal and then put hot coffee into it. 

Until I read the article on The Star dated 5 October 08- I was shocked. Even with the colon hydrotherapy- I have a lot of reservations about that- basically pumping water up the anus all the way to the digestive track (and if I am not mistaken, the water pressure had to be high in order to clean the intensines properly) seemed all wrong. If you want to maintain a good digestive health, you will need to practice good eating habits- drink lots of water, take fruits and veges. Eating fruits about 10 minutes after a glass of warm water first thing in the morning is good.  On an empty stomach. Why I know it is good? Because I have tried it and I know of people I know who does it. 

Think about it- if you shove pipes from the bottoms up- and clean it with water or coffee, few days later, the dirt or whatever will come back. Toxins take long time to accumulate in the body, you can’t just barbarically flush it off. And it’s worst, when the intensines are so ‘clean’ because the good bacteria obviously had been wiped out in the process, it opens to infections and indigestion. I know, after these treatment, the person normally have to abstain from certain food. But at that time, the entire intensine track is very vulnerable- it is opened to infection and attacks.

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Many people like to enjoy a chilling glass of iced lemon tea on a hot day or after a days’ work. My friends frequently love to order ice lemon tea after walking around shopping or to accompany their meals – some restaurants offer free refills.

The belief that iced or cold drinks are very damaging for your health originate from Eastern beliefs. Any physician treating patients using traditional Chinese medication will tell you it is a strict no no to take any form of cold drinks- especially when your body is very hot or at night. My grandmother and the grandmother of my friends also frown on this.

Another strict no no is to take iced drinks with your meal. From biology, we know that our body need to digest food at room temperature. So if you were to accompany your meals with cold water, you reduce your system’s capacity to digest food at its optimum levels which will bring you all kinds of stomach ailments such as stomach spasms, acid reflux, indigestion, wind in the stomach, bloating, etc.

However, many in the West considered this to be merely old wives superstition and since there is no scientific basis of this, people are told to abandon this ancient ’superstition’. Especially after exercising, we are told that our body need to rehydrate and as such, if you drink iced or cool drinks, the fluid will be absorbed quicker into your working muscles, thus preventing heat strokes or dehydration.

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