How I Healed My Digestive System Naturally

Posted Posted in Food, General Health, Home Remedies

When I was young, I did not know that I had a digestive system. Everything worked so well that I never worried about the system. Food got digested and waste got eliminated without any pain or misery. Little did I know that I would need to heal my gut one day.

Then in my twenties I started to have painful gas. Later I noticed that I had indigestion and constipation. By the forties my indigestion, painful gas and constipation became so bad that I had to take anti-acids in an attempt to reduce the unpleasant smell of burping. I never had breakfast till mid-day because my stomach was still full of undigested and fermenting supper from the previous evening. Someone suggested that I buy digestive enzymes. Those helped but my digestion whenever I took them.  Still I could not understand why I failed to digest my food naturally and I needed laxatives regularly in order to move my bowels.

Then I received valuable information about problems of the digestive tract and how to solve them! I learned that digestive problems are not normal: we cause them by eating harmful foods and combining foods incorrectly. This information got me excited and I started to research more about health. It was confirmed by various sources that we make ourselves ill by eating harmful foods – animal flesh and dairy products. Animal foods are difficult to digest and they make the body acidic, creating an environment that is suitable for many diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, autoimmune diseases, and inflammation. Though I did not have any of the above mentioned chronic diseases, I was probably close to getting them. After all I had a long list of symptoms, including poor digestion and constipation.

Soon after the festive season in January 2008, I experimented by avoiding all meats and all dairy. I ate plant foods only for 4 months. For breakfast I had fruits and for lunch and dinner I had vegetables and legumes. For snacks I had nuts and seeds. Within 3 months all my problems disappeared! I could digest all my food without pain and gas. Finally I eliminated wastes daily, sometimes twice per day. I felt very clean inside. No more painful gas! No more smelly burps! Even the poo smell became mild! I was back to normal! This was a miracle!

As a bonus, I lost weight from about 76kg to 62kg and I had to buy new clothes. My feet were no longer swollen and I had to buy new shoes because the old ones were too loose. The yeast infection and the burning urine (mostly from acid) cleared. My skin cleared and I no longer needed regular facials (which did not work by the way). I confirmed to myself that eating the wrong foods caused my digestive system problems and the long list of other problems. I learned that plant foods heal and soothe the digestive system, reverse acidity in the body and heal the rest of the body. I proved to myself that the right food heals the body.

I decided there and then to adopt the plant-based diet. It’s been 9 years since I changed my diet. I do not crave any meats or dairy products. Once in a while I have pizza with cheese. I also eat eggs once in a while. I do not miss any of those things. At 55 years old I am happy with my health and I do not need any pills for anything. I have plenty of energy. My life is good.

Looking back, I see that my painless life as a child was all due to a vegetarian diet that involved organic whole foods that we grew ourselves, with meat eaten a few times per year at Christmas, at Easter and when we had visitors. My diet as a young adult was meat based, with meat eaten once or twice per day, eggs eaten at least 2 times per week and dairy at least once a week. The meat-based diet caused me a lot of health issues including problems of the digestive system.

When I changed my diet in 2008, I went back to vegetarian food, and ate meat a few times per year. Now I might have fish once or twice per year if I cannot find vegan food when I visit other people. As you can tell, vegetarian food saved my life. I am painfree! I am free from disease! I have lots of energy! Best of all I look young, fit and slim!

I Healed Myself of Chronic Fatigue Naturally

Posted Posted in Home Remedies

My life between the age of 30 and 45 was tough healthwise. I was not sick really. But I was not healthy either. All the health that I had enjoyed as a young person was gone. I had daily indigestion, painful gas, constipation, chronic swollen feet, frequent burning urine, frequent yeast infections, skin breakouts and worst of all chronic fatigue.

I always felt tired. I struggled to get up in the morning and often arrived late at the office. I took advantage of the fact that I was a senior manager so I could get away with being tired. But I was not being lazy. I was tired every morning and could use more hours of sleep. Luckily once I got to the office I was too busy to feel tired and a cup of coffee always helped me to cope. I had no idea why I felt so tired. I was secretly ashamed of myself for arriving at work late almost every day.

I remember those days very well. I needed to take medicine regularly for burning urine and a laxative for my bowels and an anti-acid for my digestion. I was beginning to make my doctor rich because I had to visit every few months. Even the drug store loved me because I had to buy prescription and non-prescription meds quite often. I was really a mess. The meds only worked to get rid of symptoms but never to solve my problems. I was a mess. I needed real solutions that solved the root of my problems. I was tired of masking my symptoms. Some of the symptoms, like swollen feet, were not even attended to.

Luckily I am one of those people who insist on solutions that remove the cause. I have no interest in anything that masks my symptoms. So I did my own research. Thanks to the internet, information was available online though it mostly conflicted.
I went vegan experimentally at the beginning of 2008. By the end of 3 months all the symptoms listed above had disappeared. I digested my food fast and for the first time in years I could eat breakfast in the morning. My bowels moved daily. The burning urine disappeared and I no longer had yeast infections. And I felt lots of energy! I started to arrive at the office before 7am even though I only started work at 8am. Everyone was surprised. In truth I simply did not need to stay in bed in the morning. I was well rested and ready for the day early every day. I even started writing my first book ever!

After changing my diet, I never needed to take any meds again! I still do not need to take any meds right now. Everything works perfectly in my body. And I have so much energy I can work long hours every day. It’s been many years now and I still do not suffer from anything. While most of my age-mates (I am 55 years old) are on meds for diabetes and hypertension and many other problems, I do not need to take any meds for anything. I occasionally eat cheese or eggs or fish, and I immediately feel the indigestion. But, because I eat those things occasionally, I do not suffer for long.

To me, this is confirmation of what Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and your medicine by thy food.” Plant-based food was my healing medicine in 2008. Plant-based food is my preventative medicine today. I am happy with my life and will not change my diet for anything. Looking back, I curse those years when I lived in ignorance and bought into the idea that a balanced diet must include animal protein. Now I know that most plant foods contain some or all the amino acids that the human body needs. I have never suffered any ill-effects by avoiding animal products.

I healed myself of chronic fatigue through plant-based food. My problem had not reached the syndrome stage, but it was bad enough to earn me a bad reputation at work. If you are always tired and the tiredness interferes with your life, change to a plant-based diet as soon as possible. It will regulate your digestive system, cleanse your digestive system and heal your body all at the same time. Your fatigue and other symptoms will simply disappear. Try it.

Why I Wrote Lose Weight Naturally and Look Younger

Posted Posted in Food, General Health

As a finance manager in practice, writing books was far from my mind, but circumstances led me to write books on health.

My health was perfect when I was a child, and if I caught a cold or the flu I was always forced to recover naturally, meaning that my immune system was very strong. In my twenties I started to suffer from indigestion, gas and constipation but I did not think much about it. In my thirties I started to experience frequent yeast infections, frequent bladder problems, mostly burning urine and swollen feet. Mostly by midday every day my feet were swollen and if I travelled long distance my lower legs became swollen. I was always tired in the morning and developed the habit of arriving late at work, which was actually a bad example for my juniors.

I was a frequent visitor to my doctors for the bladder problem and the yeast infections. At one time I questioned my doctor about the frequent urine infections and he referred me to a urologist who examined my system and found it perfect. There was no physical reason for my frequent infections! I was happy that everything was perfect but I was puzzled by the frequent burning urine. My doctor had no answers.

At another time I questioned the doctor about the swollen feet and he referred me to a cardiologist who performed an ECG and found my heart to be perfectly normal. So the leg swelling was not due to heart problems! Again I was relieved that my heart was perfectly normal and yet I was puzzled about the problem. Why did my feet swell?

At one time, when I was in my 40s, the urine tests began to include acidity and many times the doctors did not need to prescribe any antibiotics as there was no infection. The urgency to urinate and the burning was caused by high acidity. Taking alkalizers normally helped temporarily until the urine became acidic again or until I got another infection.

For the indigestion I sometimes took digestive enzymes after my meals and that helped me a lot. But the enzymes did not get rid of the problem permanently. For the constipation sometimes I had to use laxatives just to move the bowels. By mid-40s my skin was breaking out. That was painful considering that I used to have very clear skin even as a teenager. I started having facials, that I never needed before, but they did not help. I changed my skincare products several times but that did not help. I was wasting my money on facials and expensive products that did not clear my skin. I began to suspect that there was a root cause for all these problems.

Because there was no physical reason for my problems, I knew that I was  introducing the problems from outside but I had no idea how. I did my own research. I learned that food is the major contributor of either good health or poor health. Specifically, the consumption of animal products contributes greatly to the development of most chronic diseases and digestive system problems. I got it! In my 30s I had begun to consume more meats than I did before. In fact as a child I grew up vegetarian, eating meat here and there during the year, mostly during the holidays. Now that I started to eat more meat in my twenties I developed digestive health problems. Increased consumption of meats in my 30s and 40s brought on more health problems. I learned that diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, osteoporosis and heart disease were going to develop any time.

Early in 2008, after the festive season, I stopped eating all animal products, i.e. all meats and all dairy products. I started to eat fruits in the morning for breakfast and vegan food for lunch and supper.Within a month my symptoms had stopped. After 3 months none of the symptoms had returned:

  • No tiredness in the morning after a good night sleep - I actually had lots of energy and started to arrive at the office earlier than anybody else.
  • No more swollen feet so I had to give away my shoes which had now become loose.
  • No indigestion.
  • My bowels moved daily.
  • No more yeast infections.
  • No more bladder problems.
  • My skin cleared and the scars began to heal and fade.
  • No smelly gas or smelly stools.

This was amazing! All the symptoms were gone and I did not need to go to the doctor again for the same recurring problems! The surprising change that took place in addition to all this was weight loss. I lost weight from 76 kg to 62 kg (168 lb to 137 lb)! I never set out to lose weight. I had become slightly overweight with a BMI of about 27 but I was not interested in losing that weight. That is why I did not mention weight gain in the story above. I had 8 symptoms to worry about!

Still, I lost weight in addition to losing all those symptoms! It took me 8 years before I even thought of writing the book Lose Weight Naturally and Look Younger. However I kept being asked the secret to my low weight and for looking so young in my 50s.  My weight these days ranges between 67kg and 69kg. That is why I decided to write this book in 2016 in order to share my secrets.

Lose Weight Naturally and Look Younger

Get your eBook for any reader here!

The Effects of Acidosis on Health

Posted Posted in General Health

Eating acid-producing foods makes the body acidic. I learned this the hard way when I suffered for years from burning urine. Sometimes the laboratory tests showed I had a urinary tract infection and at other times there was no urinary tract infection, but the urine was highly acidic. Acid was

basically burning my urinary tract, making me feel like going to the pee all the time. That is now in the past. I stopped eating foods that cause acid to build up in the body and the problem stopped. I will never forget the great discomfort that comes with this burning urine, the urgency to pee and the pain when passing the few drops of urine. I am glad that I found a way to get rid of the cause because dealing with the symptoms through antibiotics and alkalizers never solved my problem.

A certain young man was not so lucky. He was in and out of hospital several times. He was anemic and had several blood transfusions. On one hospital visit I asked him what the doctors were saying and he told me they said he was acidic. He was actually on an alkalizer drip when I asked him. The doctors were trying to alkalize the body through external means while ignoring the reason why he was acidic. I told him he had to help himself by completely changing his diet in order to make the body alkaline. He did not change. He died a few months after our conversation.

The body tries to normalize the acidic environment by re-balancing your acidity-alkalinity using the alkaline food that you eat. If you do not eat enough alkaline food, the body uses alkaline reserves (kept for emergencies). When the body runs out of alkaline reserves, and there is no alkaline food,

you get an alkaline deficit so the body breaks down its own protein and the calcium in your bones to use as neutralizer for the acid.

When the calcium in your bones is leached over time, you get osteoporosis, i.e. your bones become brittle and shrunk. When body protein breaks down your muscles shrink and get very flabby. As a result of acidosis, you become a sick, shrunk, brittle old person, long before you should grow old.

Once the alkaline reserves are gone and the body can no longer re-balance the alkaline-acidity levels, it will concentrate acid into the weakest parts of your body. These are your kidneys, liver and colon. At this point cancer is about to develop.

You have created a good environment for disease. An acidic body is a weak body. It is an easy host for bad bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. When you develop a disease, acidity is usually the reason. Maybe your kid brings a cold from pre-school this week, but do you have to catch that cold? NO! Your body should fight back. Unfortunately, when you are highly acidic, you are so ready to be sick that your body cannot resist the cold. Nor will your body resist when you sit next to someone with another transmittable infection. Unless you change at the fundamental level, which is at diet level, you will catch every passing disease. A blood test will show that your body is highly acidic.

Cancer and other life-threatening diseases and chronic diseases do not just happen to us. They are created by people. We are responsible for most of our own health problems. In addition to destroying the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, acidosis also decreases energy production in the cells, it decreases the body’s ability to repair damaged cells, it makes tumor cells thrive and grow and makes the body more prone to illness and fatigue.

Below is a list of health problems that are caused or contributed to by acidosis:

Heart DiseaseBlood ClotsStrokeChronic Fatigue
Hormonal ProblemsType 1 DiabetesDepressionArthritis
OsteoporosisObesityHeadachesSusceptibility to Infections
CancersTuberclosisHivesPremature Aging
Nasal CongestionColorectal CancerJoint PainStomach Ulcers
DepressionMuscle LossGeneral InflammationAuto-Immune Diseases
Bladder ProblemsKidney DiseaseKidney StonesHigh Blood Pressure
 

The good news……

The body is an amazing creation that can bounce back from the effects of bad habits. So even if you have been in a chronic acidic state for years, you can still derive great benefits (and probably live much longer) if you help your body to regulate its pH.

How do you do this? Glad you asked. The most effective way to combat acidosis in the body is by avoiding foods that are acid-forming to the body. Generally your diet should consist of at least 60% alkaline foods and no more than 40% acid-forming foods. If you are in a chronic state of acidosis, in order to help restore health your diet should be 80% alkaline foods and no more than 20% acid-forming foods.

 

What is Acidosis and What Causes it?

Posted Posted in General Health

Acidosis is the state of health in which the body has become acidic. The process is gradual. As you eat acid-forming foods and beverages, the liver and the kidneys sometimes fail to get rid of the acids that are formed as by-products of digestion. When the normal body functions fail to excrete the excess acids, the acids accumulate in the body, making it acidic.

The body is naturally slightly alkaline with a pH value of between 7.30 and 7.45. When the body’s pH value lies in this natural range the health of the body is good. When the pH of the body goes down, the body has become acidic. The body reacts to the acid build-up in several ways.

  1. At first the body protects vital organs by sending the excess acid to the extremities which is why people get arthritis.
  2. As more acid accumulates in the body, the body tries to protect the blood vessels by plastering them with cholesterol. This leads to the narrowing and hardening of the blood vessels, leading to high blood pressure.
  3. As the acid continues to accumulate in the body it makes the blood sticky and thick which makes it difficult for the blood to flow and easy for the blood to form clots. This is why some people feel tired all the time – they lack sufficient oxygen in the body cells and the brain.
  4. Eventually a blood clot or partial blocking of a coronary artery may lead to the damage to heart tissue due to lack of sufficient oxygen. That is the beginning of heart disease that may later manifest as a heart attack.
  5. The acidity in body tissue invites bacteria making the sufferer get infections too often. It even increases the incidence of yeast infections.
  6. The acid affects body cells leading to the development of cancers and auto-immune diseases.
  7. Eventually the acidity, if it is not reversed, will affect vital organs leading to organ failure, general inflammation, and early death.

In a nutshell, acidosis or acidemia is an environment that encourages diseases and early death. The implication is that we have to do everything we can to reverse or prevent it if we want to stay healthy. And, all we have to do is to stop eating or reduce the consumption of acid-forming foods.

List of acid forming foods