William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 128

Eat, pray push?

I’ve previously expressed my reluctance to dwell very much on the issue of constipation, but this common issue is one of the defining problems with wheat and grains, despite widespread conventional advice that they are healthy sources of fiber.

Here’s an excerpt from chapter 4 of Wheat Belly Total Health, Your Bowels Have Been Fouled: Intestinal Indignities From Grains:

“A condition as pedestrian as constipation serves to perfectly illustrate many of the ways in which grains mess with normal body functions, as well as just how wrong conventional ‘solutions’ can be. Constipation remedies are like the Keystone Kops of health, stumbling, fumbling, and bumping into each other, but never quite putting out the fire.

“Drop a rock from the top of a building and it predictably hits the ground—not sometimes, not half the time, but every time. That’s how the bowels are programmed to work, as well: Put food in your mouth, and it should come out the other end, preferably that same day and certainly no later than tomorrow. People living primitive lives without grains, sugars, and soft drinks enjoy such predictable bowel behavior: Eat some turtle, fish, clams, mushrooms, coconut, or mongongo nuts for breakfast, and out it all comes that afternoon or evening—large, steamy, filled with undigested remains and prolific quantities of bacteria, no straining, laxatives, or stack of magazines required. Live a modern life and have pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, instead. You’ll be lucky to pass that out by tomorrow or the next day. Or perhaps you will be constipated, not passing out your pancakes and syrup for days, passing it incompletely in hard, painful bits and pieces. In constipation’s most extreme forms, the remains of pancakes can stay in your colon for weeks. The combined effects of impaired CCK signaling, reduced bile release, insufficient pancreatic enzymes, and changes in bowel flora disrupt the orderly passage of digested foods.

“We are given advice to include more fiber, especially insoluble cellulose (wood) fibers from grains, in our diets. We then eat breakfast cereals or other grain-based foods rich in cellulose fibers and, lo and behold, it does work for some, as indigestible cellulose fibers, undigested by our own digestive apparatus as well as undigested by bowel flora, yield bulk that people mistake for a healthy bowel movement. Never mind that all of the other disruptions of digestion, from your mouth on down, are not addressed by loading up your diet with wood fibers. What if sluggish bowel movements prove unresponsive to such fibers? That’s when health care comes to the rescue with laxatives in a variety of forms, some irritative (phenolphthalein and senna), some lubricating (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate), some osmotic (polyethylene glycol), some no different than spraying you down with a hose (enemas).”

We know that opiate drugs such as Oxycontin and morphine are commonly constipating. There’s even a new drug being widely advertised to “treat” the constipation side-effect of opiates, Relistor, or methylnaltrexone, an opiate-blocker that requires injection and costs around $700 per month. Recall that the gliadin protein of wheat and related proteins in other grains (e.g., secalin in rye) are partially digested to peptides that have opiate (“opioid”) properties, including binding to the opiate receptors in the human intestine. Wheat and grains therefore contain a disrupter of intestinal motility, partially solved by the bulk of cellulose fiber.

Remove wheat and grains and constipation, even obstipation, can be relieved within days because you have removed the opiates that slow intestinal passage of food. You will have removed a source of cellulose fiber, as well as the modest content of prebiotic fibers from grains, namely amylose and arabinoxylan, but these are easily replaced. This is part of the reason why I urge everyone to add sources of prebiotic fibers to their post-wheat/grain-removal regimen, as well as the fact that the majority of people begin this process with substantially disrupted bowel flora.

If there were a near foolproof approach to constipation/obstipation, it would contain:

Eliminate all wheat and grains–thereby eliminating gliadin-derived opiates
Cultivate the garden called bowel flora–by “seeding” with a high-potency probiotic, followed by “water and fertilizer” to nourish desired species with prebiotic fibers
Hydrate well
Supplement magnesium–Not only does virtually everyone begin with magnesium deficiency, but this deficiency adds to disrupted intestinal motility. This is reversed by supplementing magnesium. However, the degree of stool loosing varies among different preparations due to variation in their osmotic (water-imbibing) effects. Magnesium water and magnesium malate are among our preferred forms, as they are least likely to generate loose stools while softly helping out with regularity, while magnesium citrate can be used if you do indeed need a bit more stool softening and regularity (which can be due to delayed recovery of intestinal motility after removing wheat and grains).
Supplement fiber–though this is not necessary for the majority of people on the Wheat Belly lifestyle. Just by adhering to the simple Wheat Belly strategies of consuming nuts; seeds such as pumpkin, sesame, chia, flaxseed, and sunflower; eating plenty of vegetable with limited servings of fruit and legumes like chickpeas, you obtain plentiful quantities of cellulose and other fibers. Additional flaxseed, chia, or psyllium are among the best choices.

You can see that the Wheat Belly approach does not rely on artificial means of reversing constipation and restoring normal gut motility. It does not load up on unnatural quantities of cellulose fiber, as you would by eating bran cereals and muffins, nor does it rely on intestinal irritants, softening agents, or opiate-blocking drugs. The Wheat Belly approach is to remove all disrupters of intestinal motility, restore bowel flora, and encourage the consumption of foods that naturally support bowel health. Doesn’t that make better sense?

The post Eat, pray push? appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Susan a different woman on the Wheat Belly lifestyle

You may remember Susan’s astounding Wheat Belly transformation from 2014. She was one of the ladies who provided a video that aired on one of the Wheat Belly Dr. Oz Show episodes. From the start, Susan has shed 150 pounds. Susan recently provided some additional photos to see the incredible contrast.

Susan was also among those who required a thyroid assessment. Her functional medicine practitioner helped Susan correct her thyroid status that included the crucial T3 thyroid hormone. Remember: even if wheat and grains were the cause of autoimmune thyroid inflammation (Hashimoto’s and Graves), removing the cause does not usually allow the delicate thyroid tissue to regenerate. Also toss in all the industrial endocrine disruptive chemicals we are exposed to today and thyroid dysfunction is rampant. Had Susan not combined the T3 thyroid hormone/thyroid normalization efforts along with her Wheat Belly lifestyle, she may not have had the wonderful results you see here.

First, some “befores”:

Now, Susan’s glorious “afters”:

I’ve seen Susan’s photos before but, even now, they take my breath away. Doesn’t she look absolutely spectacular?

The post Susan a different woman on the Wheat Belly lifestyle appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Wheat Belly Total Health airing again on Public Television stations nationwide

Wheat Belly Total Health public television special

The Wheat Belly Total Health Public TV Special is being aired again nationwide! Cities to air the show include Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Little Rock, Chicago, Atlanta and other Georgia cities, Denver and Colorado Springs, Cleveland-Akron, West Palm Beach and Orlando, Nashville and Memphis and Chattanooga, Seattle and Yakima, San Diego and others.

If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to view the show, here’s your chance. The show is also a terrific opportunity to get any naysayers to watch to hear the rational behind this empowering lifestyle. Time and again, people say: “Once I heard the arguments for why this lifestyle works, I was convinced.”

As many of you appreciate, people sometimes dismiss the Wheat Belly lifestyle as another low-carb diet or a gluten-free message. Of course, the Wheat Belly lifestyle is about understanding how and why wheat and grain elimination is THE most important strategy for health to have come along . . . in the last 10,000 years!

Check your local PBS listings for time and station, often posted on your station’s website, or go to the PBS website and enter your area or zip code.

The post Wheat Belly Total Health airing again on Public Television stations nationwide appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Have you had an AGE-REVERSING experience with the Wheat Belly lifestyle?

If you’ve had an age-reversing experience by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, such as the one that Angie shared (in the photos), author Beth Weissman would like to hear about it!

Beth is a writer for a major national women’s magazine and would like to focus her conversation on the wonderful age-reversing aspects of this lifestyle. Photos are not necessary, but your comments may be used in this nationally-distributed magazine.

If you’d be interested in sharing your story, contact Beth via email at: bweissman@bauerpublishing.com.

The post Have you had an AGE-REVERSING experience with the Wheat Belly lifestyle? appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Wheat Belly is an anti-inflammatory lifestyle

Laura has not only lost a substantial amount of weight from inflammatory visceral fat resulting in a dramatic reduction in waist size, but has also experienced a reduction in the issues associated with her autoimmune diseases:

“I have been on Wheat Belly for about 2 years. I have rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and have seen huge improvements and lowering of meds due to this wonderful plan. So far (and I still need to lose more) I have lost 80 lbs and am still losing. First pic is of me at our high school reunion in 2013 and the next one is today. I think you can see a bit of the difference. I am happy to be down, even if I am not all the way there yet.

“This was done with no exercise, just no wheat and no sugar, Wheat Belly plan. It’s hard to see, because pic 1 is dark, but if you look carefully you will see quite a huge Wheat Belly which is non-existent today. I am 70 years old. I am healthier, in much less pain, and so many benefits, I can’t begin to tell you!”

The drugs prescribed to “treat” autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis are nasty, imperfect drugs with substantial side-effects. Prednisone, a mainstay of drugs prescribed for such conditions, for example, is associated with weight gain (often substantial), stomach ulcers, osteoporosis, and frequently causes non-diabetics to become diabetic within the first few doses. Enbrel, now splashed all over television with ads featuring golfer, Phil Mickelson, gushing about how the drug changed his life with psoriatic arthritis, can cause life-threatening infections, demyelinating neurological disorders, cancers and autoimmune hepatitis.

How about the side-effects associated with a Wheat Belly approach of no wheat or grains, followed by the other strategies such as restoration of vitamin D and healthy bowel flora? After the initial opiate withdrawal syndrome, there is weight loss, reduction in inflammatory markers like c-reactive protein, reduction in blood sugar and blood pressure, reversal of skin rashes and joint pain, reduced headaches, reduced anxiety, deeper sleep, reduction or elimination of small LDL particles (that cause coronary disease–not “high cholesterol”), rise in HDL cholesterol, reduction in triglycerides, freedom from irritable bowel syndrome and acid reflux . . .

Autoimmune diseases are no laughing matter, as Laura would tell you. How about type 1 diabetes in children? This is a terrifying diagnosis for parents, as it does not just mean having to give your infant or toddler insulin injections, but it means being constantly vigilant for hypoglycemia that can be life-threatening, not to mention a diagnosis that is lifelong. Type 1 diabetes is, in many if not most cases, a disease of the gliadin protein of wheat, rye, barley; the zein protein of corn; and the casein beta A1 protein of North American dairy products. Or how about the progressive debilitation of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune neurological diseases? These are often fatal–but caused by the muffin, bagel, or breakfast cereal that we are all assured is good for health.

So Laura’s reversal of two autoimmune diseases is a huge turnaround in health: freedom from the diseases but also freedom from the dangerous drugs used to “treat” them. And losing 80 pounds in the process? Not too shabby, certainly not something accomplished with the drugs.

The post Wheat Belly is an anti-inflammatory lifestyle appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Why are there no cravings when following the Wheat Belly lifestyle?

Paula shared her 7-month Wheat Belly experience:

“After 30 lbs lost since January. No cravings. Went from size 16 to 10-12. New me!”

Read the Wheat Belly books, cookbooks, posts on the Wheat Belly Blog, or anything else Wheat Belly-associated, and you will never hear me say “watch your calories” or “reduce your portion size.” Cutting calories is not only a miserable experience, it can also work against you by reducing basal metabolic rate, not to mention the binges that overpower you because you’re so hungry.

If you did count calories (which I do not advocate), however, and compared your current wheat/grain-free calorie intake to that before undertaking this lifestyle, you would likely find that your intake is far less. 400-800 fewer calories per day is typical, though I’ve witnessed as much as 1500 reduced daily calorie intake. Wheat Belly critics say that the drop in calories and weight develop because people are so deprived living this lifestyle. Those of you following these discussions recognize how laughable that is, enjoying fatty meats, cheesecake, plenty of vegetables, etc. The reduction in food intake, as Paula experienced, occurs without cravings, provided you take in sufficient fat and oils, because you have eliminated the gliadin-derived opiates that stimulate appetite. If all you do is cut calories while still consuming wheat and grains, you are still being exposed to the appetite-stimulating effects of the gliadin-derived opiates that make you hungry, often even obsessive about food. Lose the wheat, lose the grains, lose the appetite-stimulant effect and, lo and behold, you eat for sustenance, no calorie counting required.

And look at the changes in Paula’s face. While the glasses cover some of her eyes, you can still make out the usual reduced puffiness and edema that develops in wheat/grain-free folk. I believe she has turned the clock back, another example of the age-reversing effects of this lifestyle.

The post Why are there no cravings when following the Wheat Belly lifestyle? appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

No grains, no pain for Ali

Ali suffered from a variety of chronic pains. You can almost see the pain in her eyes: bags under the eyes, around-the-eye puffiness, edematous cheeks.

She shared her two week–TWO WEEK–experience starting the inflammation-reversing, edema-reversing, pain-reversing, and age-reversing Wheat Belly lifestyle:

“Here is my two week before and after. I see a big difference in the eye area and I’m feeling so much better. No more lower back pain and no more burning in my upper back and shoulder area. I’m so glad I have stuck with it this time.

“It’s so nice to not be in pain!”

I believe that, in another few weeks, the initial benefits will become even more apparent in Ali’s facial changes.

You are all probably sick and tired of me saying this, but I have to keep pointing out that no “diet” can provide relief from chronic pain and inflammation. Cutting calories, smaller portion sizes, increased exercise, cutting fat–NO impact on pain or inflammation.

To reverse pain and inflammation, rid your life of the factors that cause or aggravate pain and inflammation:

Eat no wheat or grains–because they contain several compounds that provoke inflammation
Restore vitamin D–second in line after wheat/grain elimination for its anti-inflammatory benefits
Supplement omega-3 fatty acids–from fish oil only because only EPA and DHA–not linolenic acid–exert anti-inflammatory benefits by normalizing eicosanoid metabolism.
Cultivate healthy bowel flora–Bowel microorganisms were previously disrupted by grains and other factors; remove them and take the opportunity to allow healthy bowel flora to flourish, thereby reducing abnormal intestinal permeability and other factors that add to inflammation.

There are other factors that provoke pain and inflammation (discussed in Wheat Belly Total Health) that are less common, but those are the most important and common reasons people like Ali struggle with chronic pain for years, prescribed NSAIDs, narcotics, TENS units, undergo surgery–before such simple, evolutionarily appropriate, and health-restoring solutions are followed.

The post No grains, no pain for Ali appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Angie discovers the fountain of youth and health

Angie understands that health and weight loss do NOT come from extreme exercise, cutting calories or counting points. Health and weight come by eliminating something that should never have been incorporated into diet in the first place, changed by agribusiness, included in virtually all processed foods, added as both cheap filler and appetite-stimulant, while being advised by dietitians and providers of dietary advice that they should dominate every meal–the seeds of grasses, AKA “grains.”

“Celebrating my birthday and feeling soooo incredibly awesome after being grain-free for 6 months!

“After literally trying every diet/WOE out there, training for/running two half marathons, feeling tired and hungry all the time and the scale continuing to go in the opposite direction…I finally found something that works for me, is easy to maintain and I have never felt better!”

Angie may be celebrating a birthday, but it looks like she backtracked at least TEN birthdays, looking far younger than her “before” photo!

The post Angie discovers the fountain of youth and health appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Daphne, a former skeptic, now a Wheat Belly believer

Daphne was a Wheat Belly skeptic. There are lots of them out there. And I understand that. I, too, was once a skeptic. After all, I started this journey over 20 years ago following a strict low-fat, vegetarian diet.

I first began observing the astounding changes in health in my cardiac patients who I counseled to eliminate all wheat to reduce formation of small LDL particles–the most common abnormality in people with coronary disease–and high blood sugars. At first, I didn’t know what to make of the astounding weight loss, the reduction in appetite, the reversal of joint pain and skin rashes, the reversal of autoimmune conditions, the change in facial appearance, thicker hair, younger skin, relief from acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome, etc. that people reported to me. I first dismissed it as coincidence . . . until it kept on happening dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, now hundreds of thousands and millions of times.

That’s when I started asking questions of agricultural geneticists to understand: Why would eliminating the food that ALL official providers of dietary advice urge us to eat more of yield astounding changes in health and weight? That’s when I put 2 + 2 together: the wheat of the 21st century is not the wheat of 1960–it was changed, and changed dramatically. Combine these insights with the frustration I experienced in discussing this with colleagues, even when CURE of chronic diseases was encountered, and that began the process that has turned the world of nutritional advice topsy-turvy. Don’t eat “healthy whole grains”–eat NO grains, especially the worst one of all, modern semidwarf wheat. Don’t cut fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol–instead, eat fatty meats, don’t trim off the fat, and add more healthy fats like coconut oil. Eat real foods least corrupted by modern agribusiness.

Daphne is among our most recent converts. Struggling with weight and health issues, surely the solution cannot be found in doing the OPPOSITE of all government advice and eating NO grains and plenty of natural fats?

“It took me almost a year to decide to try this lifestyle. I wasn’t sure I believed it 100%. I read all your books and finally decided to jump in head-first the last week of March, 2015.

“I have struggled with IBS [irritable bowel syndrome] and severe digestive issues since I was a child. I have been to so many doctors, I can’t even count. They all told me to ‘eat more fiber and whole wheat.’ I didn’t get any better. I started having severe anxiety issues in 2012 and started putting on the weight. I gained 56 pounds and felt worse than I have ever felt in my life.

“Once I started Wheat Belly, I lost 14 pounds in the first 2 weeks and I haven’t had one stomach ache in two months. I can eat again. I am still dealing with anxiety but I am hoping that, the longer I dedicate myself to this lifestyle, my anxiety will taper off. Thank you so much for your books and research. I have spread the word and my brother, best friend, and several others close to me have started living this lifestyle, as well.

Here’s another “after” photo Daphne shared:

Why has it taken a lifetime for Daphne to finally discover the solution to her bowel struggles? Why did she have to endure countless misinformed doctors, likely subjected to unnecessary testing and prescription drugs, before finding out that it is a destructive component of diet causing the entire problem, foods that all providers of nutritional advice agree should dominate every meal?

As often happens around here, you can see much of Daphne’s health success reflected on the face: less edema, less inflammation, as well as being slender. The Wheat Belly lifestyle works at so many levels in health because it removes a cause for body-wide inflammation.

The post Daphne, a former skeptic, now a Wheat Belly believer appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Aimee: thinner, happier, younger on the Wheat Belly lifestyle

Here are Aimee’s before and after photos from her 6-month long Wheat Belly adventure:

“The picture on the left was December, 2014 and the picture on the right was June, 2015. 32 lbs down and no more joint pain, headaches or sleepless nights.

See the facial changes? Freedom from facial edema/inflammation, relief from joint pain/inflammation, headaches, and sleep disruption–as I often point out, no “diet” accomplishes such changes. Had Aimee suffered the torment of reducing calories, eating smaller portions, or following an extreme exercise program instead of following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, she might have lost the 32 pounds, but she would not be freed from facial edema/inflammation, headaches, or disrupted sleep. So it’s not weight loss that achieves all these health benefits–it’s the elimination of wheat and grains and their inflammatory, autoimmune-triggering, appetite-boosting, water-retaining, mind-disrupting effects.

And can any “diet” make you look 10 years younger?

The post Aimee: thinner, happier, younger on the Wheat Belly lifestyle appeared first on Dr. William Davis.