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May 26, 2021

Gluten and Anxiety: is there a connection?

Are you or someone you love  struggling with anxiety?

Have you tried different counselling or a combination of different medications to get on top of the anxiety?

It’s important for you to know there is a connection between gluten and anxiety. Gluten could actually be the root cause of your anxiety, even when you’re not celiac.

The first connection between gluten and anxiety comes from understanding the gut brain connection.

Firstly, many studies have shown that our gut and our brain are connected. There’s actually a third nervous system called the enteric nervous system that shows the direct link between what’s going on in our gut and the brain.

This means if there’s inflammation in your gut, it’s going to create brain inflammation. Research studies have shown that patients who have anxiety may also have gastrointestinal complaints. When our gut is out of balance, it can create anxiety.

The research done by Dr. Alessio Fasano, a pediatric gastroenterologist, has shown that gluten increases intestinal permeability and creates inflammation in all humans. Some people have the ability to heal the inflammation quicker than others.
Consuming gluten creates inflammation in the gut. This inflammation causes dysregulation in brain chemicals.

Brain chemicals like GABA are used to manage and regulate anxiety. When you have inflammation in your gut, your ability to make GABA decreases and your anxiety gets worse and worse, no matter what you do.

The second connection between gluten and anxiety are nutritional deficiencies.

When you consume gluten containing food, you create inflammation in your gut and you also create intestinal permeability. Unfortunately, the gut is where you absorb all your vitamins and minerals.

Therefore, when we have inflammation and intestinal permeabilities, we could also have nutrient deficiencies. In order for our brain chemicals that regulate our mood and anxiety to be made, we need certain vitamins and minerals. Gut inflammation means we can’t absorb enough of the proper nutrients because we can’t absorb them through our gut.

When we have less ability to make those neurochemicals, our anxiety again gets worse and worse. Most people are shocked to find out that when you’re eating a whole foods diet and supplementing but also eating gluten, it could be causing nutrient deficiencies. The inflammation and intestinal permeability caused by gluten could be making it difficult for you to actually absorb the nutrients you need.

The third connection between gluten and anxiety is your diagnosis.

Celiac disease is known to be linked to anxiety and depression. However gluten could be the root cause of your anxiety, even if you test negative for celiac disease.

Research estimates that approximately 18 million Americans have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, a number that’s six times higher than celiac disease.

The only way to know if you have non celiac gluten sensitivity is to cut out gluten, for four weeks. If your anxiety changes, then you know that gluten is the root cause of your anxiety.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
May 17, 2021

When Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Doesn’t Cut It

By any chance, have you already tried going gluten free, dairy free, and you’re still having chronic symptoms?

First of all, dietary changes will radically shift your health. However, there are many instances when patients have tried a gluten free dairy free diet without any results. It is time that we took a deep dive into when gluten-free, dairy-free doesn’t cut it.

Are you suffering from symptoms of chronic constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel?

Do you have skin conditions like eczema and rashes?

Do you have a child with a nervous tummy or anxiety?

Then I strongly recommend you follow a gluten free, dairy free diet.

These conditions are signs that your body has inflammation, and the top inflammatory foods out there are gluten and dairy.

The first reason why going gluten free, dairy free doesn’t cut it is because you’re not going 100%

When most patients say they have tried gluten-free, dairy-free, they tell me what they’ve only cut down. Maybe as little as only having it once a week. Even once a week, a small amount of any inflammatory thing in your body will trigger your immune system. It is the the same as having a whole block of cheese or a whole baguette.

If you’re only doing it 85 to 90%, your immune system still sees that little tiny amount as inflammatory and it will keep your immune system on high alert. This may prevent you from actually getting the results that you could achieve if you had gone all in.

So if you’ve cut down and you actually haven’t gone 100%, you’ve done all the hard work. Now do it 100%!

The second reason why gluten free, dairy free isn’t cutting it is because you haven’t done it for long enough. 

Often when patients present to my office saying they’ve tried a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, they have only done it for a week or two.

This is not long enough because our body and our immune system recognizes the proteins in gluten and dairy, gliadin and casein. When these proteins are inflammatory to our body, our body will see these two proteins as dangerous strangers and create inflammation. Hence, we have these symptoms.

How long does it take? I highly recommend doing a minimum of four weeks. If you have severe chronic conditions, my recommendation is 100 days elimination. This allows your immune system to decrease the antibodies to these two proteins and you will see a radical shift in your health.

The third reason why gluten free, dairy free isn’t cutting it is because there are other factors. 

If you’ve already done a gluten-free, dairy-free diet at 100% and you’ve done it for a minimum of four weeks, there are other factors that may be involved.

A healthy person will have an entirely new intestinal lining in two to three weeks. This means if you’re doing a gut healing protocol for six months or more and you’re still having the chronic symptoms, there’s are other factors. These factors include genetics, the health of the microbiome, environmental toxins, stress, and a whole list of other things that impact the body.

A gluten-free, dairy-free is still the first step, because gluten and dairy are some of the most inflammatory foods known to humans. Stick to it, while still addressing those other factors I spoke about through functional medicine testing. You will see that decreasing the amount of inflammatory foods in your diet will help you heal faster.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
May 4, 2021

H. Pylori is sucking the life out of you

Have you been suffering from chronic mysterious symptoms? Then you should also be wondering if unresolved H. Pylori is sucking the life out of you.

Have you already completed a conventional H. Pylori test like the antibody test or breath test? 

Unfortunately, the antibody test doesn’t distinguish between current and past H. Pylori infections. There is no way to determine whether you currently have an infection, or if you had one previously. 

An H. Pylori test is often only found to be positive in very severe cases when using the breath test. You could miss a slow underlying infection that when left untreated will grow to be worse and worse. That is why conventional H. Pylori testing is somewhat inaccurate. These conventional test results could be the reason why your chronic symptoms continue and this is true for many of my functional medicine patients. 

If you are suffering with mysterious symptoms it is time to determine if the root cause of these symptoms is H. Pylori. Many patients come to be with unresolved H. Pylori that they don’t even know they have. 

This is why I got into functional medicine. I was one of those asymptomatic people with a severe H. Pylori infection. I didn’t have symptoms so I didn’t go looking for anything. When I did functional medicine testing, I uncovered that not only did I have an overgrowth of H. Pylori, but I had numerous different species of H. Pylori and virulence factors. These same virulence factors are are linked to stomach cancer. Both my grandfather’s died prematurely at the age of 50 of stomach cancer. This was really significant for me. 

The first way that H. Pylori is sucking the life out of you is that awful heartburn. 

Heartburn can interfere with your everyday life so profoundly. It makes you not want to eat. You have heartburn when you eat, you have heartburn when you don’t eat. Many times, this will keep you up at night for hours. Not only is the pain uncomfortable, but it’s also creating more issues. If you’re taking antacids and you still have heartburn, you may consider that you have an H. Pylori overgrowth. The worst part is that if you’re decreasing your stomach acid, it may give your H. Pylori even more beneficial environment to expand and grow. Read More

Kristina Bosnar
May 3, 2021

The two functional tests that will change your life

Are you experiencing symptoms that keep getting worse and worse?

Do your traditional test results always come back ‘within normal’ ranges?

Do you keep going from doctor to doctor looking for functional tests after being told ‘everything looks normal’… but the symptoms aren’t going away?

That’s normal for me to hear from my patients. It is vital to do these two functional tests when you are experiencing mysterious symptoms because they will change the trajectory of your life.

Traditional medicine tends to look at the symptoms then reacts to treat them. There’s nothing wrong with this approach. However, if you’re continuing to have symptoms and your bloodwork is within normal ranges, you hit a dead end. There’s nothing else you can do.

Firstly, traditional lab testing can actually give functional medicine practitioners a lot of information. Instead of looking at ‘normal ranges’, we look at ‘functional ranges’. These ranges are much smaller and start to give us indication as to the root cause. 

Secondly, in functional medicine we strive to look at the whole body as a system. Treatment depends on understanding what is at the root cause of those symptoms. When traditional lab work doesn’t show the root cause, functional medicine goes deeper. The focus of functional testing is to uncover the root cause of symptoms.

Most importantly, for anyone continuing to experience mysterious symptoms, these are the two functional tests I recommend that will change your life. 

The first functional test that will change your life is the GIMAP by diagnostic solutions lab.

It is my favourite comprehensive stool analysis. This test looks at so many different markers. It gives an underlying view of what is going on in the large intestine. Most testing traditionally looks for one or two things. A specific pathogen, maybe a parasite. The GI map has a load of information. It gives us information on parasites. It also gives us a good view into the overall micro flora and your microbiome.

What GI Map testing does that most testing doesn’t do, is look at intestinal health. The GI MAP can show how you’re detoxifying your estrogens and environmental toxins. It will also reveal if you have intestinal permeability or inflammation in your gut and even how your overall digestive tract is working.

Understanding these results can uncover the root cause(s) of those symptoms. These results aren’t being picked up on traditional testing, which is why it’s such a fantastic test.

The second functional test that will change your life is the Organic Acids Test by Great Plains Laboratory

This test has 70+ markers on it to help us uncover the root cause of your symptoms. It looks at fungal overgrowth and even nutritional markers. It can also give us an indication if you’re being exposed to mold toxins and/or environmental toxins. This testing will look at neurotransmitter metabolites, different bacterial overgrowth and uncover information about different nutrient and vitamin levels. The other exceptional thing it shows us is mitochondrial function, how your body’s making energy. This information is crucial for so many people that have chronic health conditions.

In our practice we use both the OAT test and the GI map to get a comprehensive overview of the small intestine and the large intestine. This really gives us an opportunity to look at a broader scale. Now we can make a plan that’s tailored directly to what’s actually going on inside of you.

If your lab testing looks normal and your symptoms keep getting . It’s time to do different lab testing, functional lab testing. 

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
April 28, 2021

The 3 C’s You Need to Biohack Tummy Trouble

Is someone in your family struggling with tummy troubles? Have you noticed these symptoms often appear right after meal time? These symptoms include painful gas or bloating, digestive discomfort, constipation, even heart burn. Most of my patients spend years attempting to biohack tummy trouble, by reacting to their symptoms.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Instead of reactionary measures, we can prevent these symptoms before they happen. How? By following the 3 C’s you need to biohack tummy trouble.

The first C: Choose

Choosing the right food is an important proactive step to avoid tummy trouble.

This means eating whole, one ingredient foods.

Avoiding packaged food, foods filled with preservatives, high sugar foods or chemical filled foods are not the right choice for tummy troubles. Eating foods your body recognizes and understands helps your body to identify what foods you are eating. This allows your body to send out the right digestive enzymes to break down your food.

The second C: Chew

The only place you are able to chew your food, is in your mouth! You don’t have teeth anywhere else in your digestive tract. Chewing is a vital first step for digestion!

If you miss that step and you have a big chunk of food coming down into your stomach, your body can’t break it down. It also hasn’t been broken down enough for your body to recognize it. This can set off the digestive systems alarm bells. Often this will cause the body to have a reaction to foods that are normally well tolerated.

I recommend taking at least 10 chews or waiting until the food is pureed in your mouth before swallowing.

Another helpful trick is to put your fork down between bites. It takes a lot longer to eat but you will avoid the tummy troubles that are occurring because of large chunks of undigested food.

The third C: Chill

When your body is in a stressed out state it feels like it is running away from a lion or a tiger. You can not digest in this state. The nerve impulses and blood flow to your digestive organs don’t turn on. Trying to eat while looking at emails or trying to feed your kids at the same time, this puts your body into a state of stress. In this state, digestion isn’t optimized and digestive enzymes aren’t working.

Did you ever notice when you’re rushing your feel like you have no saliva and your mouth is dry? It’s because your body doesn’t think it is time for digesting.

Next time, take a few deep breaths before you sit down to eat. Look at the food you are about to consume. It is said that 30% of digestion starts in your brain. When you see and smell your food, it stimulates digestive organs like the salivary glands. This happens in the parasympathetic part of the nervous system. When you stimulate that part of the nervous system, all your digestive organs are working. This also means your bowel movements will be working better because you have taken the time to relax and stimulate the right part of your nervous system.  

These are the tools I use with all of my patients who are experiencing various levels of tummy trouble. These are the 3c’s you need to biohack tummy trouble and proactively avoid these stressful symptoms! 

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar