Blog 1 - The Unknown Harm of Fructose
Having praised during the eighties the merit of this 'natural sugar', the scientific community is now unanimous; consuming fructose constitutes the worst dietary advice that one could give to diabetics, who without further ado, should throw their fructose jars in the ...
Congratulations Dr Kellogg! This is the American Physician who invented Cornflakes in 1894.
Dr Kellogg you have managed to make millions of people believe that to benefit from a decent breakfast they should buy, not a natural product, but instead one that has been processed and packaged in a factory...
You have probably heard of coeliac disease already; the genetic and auto-immune affliction affecting about 1% of the population of Western Europe. It is a severe allergy to gluten with devastating health consequences. Gluten containing proteins are present in four cereals: wheat, rye, barley and oats (spelt and kamut are old grains of the wheat family but with much less gluten, ...
I can remember when I was a medical student, the launch of these "miraculous" drugs destined to heal gastric and duodenal ulcers. At that time we only had relatively inefficient anti-acids and here was a breakthrough; a one month treatment with omeprazole, maybe two in more severe cases, was often enough to heal the ulcer....
Now it is time to bring some enlightenment to the multiple negative reactions humans can have towards animal milk products. It is an important subject about which we constantly hear many confusing statements, with people swiftly mistaking the three main components of milk products: sugars, proteins, and fats...
Blog 6 - Myths Concerning Osteoporosis
Dairy products cause problems to many people such as allergies (IgE and IgG) to the main proteins of animal milk and/or due to lactose intolerance, but also because of their richness in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. However we have long been told that the daily consumption of dairy products is essential to the development and maintenance of bone mass to avoid osteoporosis later on in life...
Blog 7 - Biphosphonates Delusions
Discovered at the end of the 1960's and initially called diphosphonates, the biphosphonates started to be seriously commercialized during the 1990's. Their mode of action is to inhibit osteoclasts, the bone cells whose mission it is to clean up the bone rendered useless (a little bit like old wood on a tree that needs to be trimmed)...
Let's sum up the situation on the widespread lack of understanding and contempt towards food intolerances and allergies. We have heard just about anything and everything on the subject, and that's not only from the mouth of patients, but doctors too...
For anyone who experiences negative reactions towards animal milks (IgE allergy, IgG allergy, or lactose intolerance), it is logical to substitute one of a number of plant milks: ...
Blog 10 - The Trickery of Artificial Sweeteners
If artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, cyclamate and acesulfame-K help people to lose weight we could have seen the results long before now. The United States would have given the world a shock with significant weight loss results. Given their near zero calorie content, everyone expected that their metabolic action would also be zero! ...
As we have already discussed, it is a proven fact that many people feel better - and not only just for their digestion – without gluten (no wheat, rye, barley, oat, not even spelt or kamut).
Consequently, these individuals select "gluten free" products, but this choice can give rise to unsuspected complications ...
Blog 12 - The Tricks for Egg Tolerance
We should not have to revisit, I hope, the importance of proteins at every meal, especially at breakfast – particularly for those who find it difficult to stabilize their blood sugar levels. This includes all those individuals who complain of sudden fatigue ("feeling low") who compensate by eating sugary foods, and, of course, all of those with abdominal ...
Blog 13 - The Good Intestinal Strategies
As many people can attest, solving chronic intestinal issues can be a very complicated process. Identifying food allergies (IgE and IgG) and food intolerances (lactose or fructose) can help some, but it is often a long, difficult, expensive and sometimes inefficient process ...
Blog 14 - The Benefits of the Paleolithic Diet
Human societies started to cultivate wheat in the middle of the 8th millennium BC, so about 10,000 years ago, in the 'Fertile Crescent' region, then known as Mesopotamia, which now consists mainly of Iraq and Syria. Maize (corn) cultivation started about 9,000 years ago in the southwest of Mexico; whilst for rice it was some 7,000 years ago in northern India ...
Blog 15 - The Danger of Trans Fatty Acids (1/2)
Blog 16 - The Danger of Trans Fatty Acids (2/2)
We as Europeans have a bad deal: our legislation, unlike that passed in the United States in recent years, does nothing to protect us from trans fatty acids (most commonly referred to as trans fats). With the exception of Denmark since 2004, the trans fat content does not have to be listed on food labels of products sold in Europe. In addition, unlike for many countries, the trans fat ...
Blog 17 - Advice for Sleeping Better (1/3)
Blog 18 - Advice for Sleeping Better (2/3)
Blog 19 - Advice for Sleeping Better (3/3)
Let's start with the most important aspect of our advice for better sleep: total darkness in the bedroom. There shouldn't be any electrical devices with luminous dials: no alarm-clock, no mobile phone, no computer, no TV, no radio-alarm… In any case, all electronic equipment should be banned from the bedroom because they stimulate the brain and prevent you from falling asleep: there is ...
Blog 20 - The Importance of the Adrenal Glands (1/4)
Blog 21 - The Importance of the Adrenal Glands (2/4)
Blog 22 - The Importance of the Adrenal Glands (3/4)
Blog 23 - The Importance of the Adrenal Glands (4/4)
Having mentioned many times these infamous adrenal glands, it is time to elaborate further on their crucial endocrine function and why it is essential to our health. Furthermore they are also inseparable from thyroid function. Let's be clear; it is of the upmost importance to establish and maintain a strict equilibrium between the adrenals and the thyroid. Therefore treating ...
Blog 25 - Pollution Engendering Hypothyroidism (2/2)
We live in a world that is increasingly more polluted by thousands of chemical molecules called xenobiotics: insecticides, herbicides, various industrial waste, cosmetics, cleaning products, detergents, and additives…. Many xenobiotics have an anti-thyroid action: dioxins, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAHs), organochlorine pesticides ...
Blog 26 - Solutions to Relieve Constipation
Ayurvedic medicine, enriched with oriental wisdom and millenniums of experience, argues that "health" is defined primarily by the emission of one to two formed stools daily and a maximum of three stools per day at most.
Alas, many people do not meet this definition because of loose stools, or even liquid stools. This is not our topic ...
Blog 27 - Top Tips for Headaches
As is generally the case in these blogs, we are not talking here about serious diseases, but rather 'functional' disorders. This blog is therefore more about common headaches rather than true migraines.
Very simply, the first two tricks – and probably the most important ones of all - are to eat and drink often …
Blog 28 - The Correct Interpretation of Biological Assessments
Laboratories always indicate, for every requested parameter, a range of reference values. The norms are defined to include 95% of the "healthy" population within this reference range, with 2.5% of subjects above and 2.5% under the proposed range. It is simply a general rule!
We begin by questioning this so-called "normal" ...
Blog 29 - The Importance of Seasonal Produce
I would like to return to the important principle that we must always strive to consume seasonal products. In my opinion it is a fundamental concept from which many other food rules should also be respected to promote good health.
When you stop and think about it, everything is seasonal food! I have already discussed the subject of eggs, …
Blog 30 - Understanding Certain Forms of Anaemia (1/2)
Blog 31 - Understanding Certain Forms of Anaemia (2/2)
As usual, we are discussing relatively benign forms of functional anaemia because what we are describing doesn't require a specialist, namely a haematologist, to treat these conditions. A diagnosis of anaemia implies a lack of haemoglobin, which implies a deficiency of red blood cells that are necessary to transport haemoglobin, which results in less oxygen supply to the tissues. You may ...
Blog 32 - The Necessity to Consume Fish (1/2)
Blog 33 - The Necessity to Consume Fish (2/2)
Pottery was reputedly invented by hunter-gatherers living in the Far East 20,000 years ago. The earliest ceramics have been attributed to a Japanese tribe called "Jomon" and artefacts dating from 15,000 years ago have been examined by researchers from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York in England. They used a new technology to analyze the food residues ...
Blog 35 - The Benefits of Intestinal Lubrication (2/2)
Due to studies being too short and biased, cholesterol has received a bad press for some 50 years. It is in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry to keep a close watch on this due to its gigantic lobby for statins. This hysterical hatred of "fat" is aided by the modern media network, which causes people to believe that we become fat because we eat fat …
Blog 36 - Cholesterol is Essential to Health
Most of my patients seem convinced that their diet can be labelled as "optimum" as long as they avoid cholesterol. Cholesterol is at the centre of an all-out demonization: popular belief, mainstream media, dieticians, nutritionists, doctors…all are convinced of the harmfulness of this omnipresent molecule in animal flesh.
All this nonsense stems from a biased epidemiological …
Blog 37 - Restoring the Physiological State (1/2)
Blog 38 - Restoring the Physiological State (2/2)
No matter that I base my therapeutic interventions on natural treatments (without rejecting allopathic medicines that I reserve for acute problems), I am nevertheless constantly harassed by patients who are worried about their effects!
"They have read" or "they were told" that: vitamin A is very toxic, selenium is a heavy metal, iodine must …
Blog 39 - Controversies about Menopause (1/2)
Blog 40 - Controversies about Menopause (2/2)
Always in the context of respect for the physiological norms that need to be restored for optimal heath, it is time to address the sensitive issue of sex hormones after the menopause. Contrary to what most people think, women continue to produce low levels of hormones after their periods have stopped; this minimal secretion should normally continue with any woman in good health. …
Blog 41 - Heavy Price for Excessive Use of Antibiotics
Scientists seek explanations for the obesity epidemic that is hitting the affluent world: increasingly sedentary lifestyles, junk food, excessive consumption of fast releasing sugars and fructose… or overuse of antibiotics?
I was struck by a sequence of three articles published respectively in 2009, 2011 and 2013, all discussing intestinal microorganisms called methanogens, which produce methane gas. …
Blog 42 - Endocrine Disruptors and Obesity
Bisphenol-A is today a recognized cause of obesity, especially among girls, as demonstrated by a large Chinese study published on 12 June 2013. This publication was the subject of the article of the month that I invite you to consult on my website www.gmouton.com under the specific heading "Article du Mois".
This environmental obesogen is found everywhere, …
Blog 43 - The most Dangerous Xeno-Oestrogens
Unfortunately for us there are dozens of them! I want to take one last opportunity to devote a blog on the main chemical molecules that have oestrogenic activity and pollute our environment and our food. They are often referred to as "œstrogen-like" or even "xeno-oestrogens", the latter reflecting the terminology for artificial toxic substances invented by man and named "xenobiotics". …
Blog 44 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (1/9)
Blog 45 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (2/9)
Blog 48 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (5/9)
Blog 49 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (6/9)
Blog 50 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (7/9)
Blog 51 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (8/9)
Blog 52 - Hypothyroidism is too often Ignored (9/9)
As a first step we must carefully observe the lower part of the neck of patients to detect any suspicious swelling, palpation of which will direct you towards either goitre (hypertrophy of the thyroid tissue) or to one or more nodules. A simple thyroid ultrasound will reveal a lot more, especially with the calculation of the volume of the gland. Each lobe should normally be between 3ml and 9ml: above 9ml is classified as goitre; below 3ml is the opposite, and we are dealing with a hypotrophy of the …
ConclusionThat's it; the 'party' is over! 52 weeks and 52 blogs later, I hope you have learnt some interesting things. Without really planning the subject of the blogs, we have still managed to cover all the major areas of Functional Medicine.
Unsurprisingly, no less than 20 of my blogs have been dedicated to food, exposing the greatest myths and most common dietary errors. The significant damage caused …