Tag Archives: Skin Care

Allergy “Season” only finds some bodies

Allergy “Season” only finds some bodies

Sneezing, wheezing, running nose, itchy eyes, blotchy skin — here we go again with allergy season!

Sneezing, wheezing, coughing and itching are commonly considered symptoms of allergies, but joint stiffness, sluggishness, headaches, alternating constipation and diarrhea – these symptoms and others can also be signs of an “allergic reaction,” a “sensitivity,” or an “intolerance” to something entering your body.

Why do some of us suffer every year, others have good years and bad years, while others never suffer allergies??
To answer this, let’s understand how the body works and what you can do to help yourself, your family, friends and coworkers with their symptoms of allergies the natural way, without medications!

The skin is the most important part of the immune system.

It protects us from the outside world. We also have a special “skin” that protects us from our inside world, which is the mucus membrane. This moist tissue covers the inside of your mouth, throat, stomach and intestines. It also lines your nasal passages and lungs. The purpose of these highly specialized tissues is to protect your body from foreign substances. An important principle to understand is that this “skin” is the first defense for your immune system. When your skin allows these foreign substances to “leak” through into your blood stream, that’s when the real trouble begins.

Immune Challenges are met by antibodies
Allergic reactions begin when substances capable of beginning a “reaction” enter through your nose, lungs, skin or intestines. These substances are commonly thought to be pollen and foods, but they can also come from synthetic chemicals in our environment, drinks or foods.

Regardless of the source, all allergic reactions are a response by your body to the foreign substance. The body responds by sending antibodies to the rescue.
Antibodies are an important part of the body’s natural defense system and are produced normally by our white blood cells to help fight infection or toxins. These white blood cells make antibodies to bind with the foreign materials and then eliminate them. This is a great design!

If this antibody system is designed to protect me from bacteria, viruses and parasites, why am I allergic to foods, perfume and cleaning solvents?

Let’s discuss foods first. One way a body can become overly sensitive (allergic) to common foods occurs when poor digestive function sends partially digested foods down the intestines for absorption. The mucus membrane lining your intestine is supposed to absorb the good nutrients and keep out the rest. If that lining is unhealthy and “leaky,” allergic reactions begin. That’s because the “leaky” state of the intestines allows large protein particles from partially digested foods to be absorbed into the blood stream. These particles are recognized as “foreign” by the immune system, and they are removed from the body by the immune system, by binding with antibodies.
Similarly, chemicals in our environment challenge our immune system by irritating the mucus membranes of the nose and lungs, making them “leak,” and thereby allowing foreign substances to enter the tissues. The immune system must respond yet again.
Additionally, the poor quality of the food we eat, poor digestion, and unhealthy bowel flora also contribute to nutritional deficiency. A nutritionally deficient body does not have the necessary nutrients available to build and maintain healthy tissues, including the skin and mucus membranes that form barriers to protect us. In this way symptoms of allergies begin.
One can see how in our world full of pollution, synthetic foods and chemicals of all types, our immune systems are challenged constantly. We often become overly sensitive to common substances. Such a constant demand on the immune system to respond to “challenges” can result from nutritional deficiency and cause nutritional deficiency, creating a vicious cycle, eventually leading to immune system exhaustion.

A natural approach to cause and care of allergies
To summarize the cause of allergies:

  • Nutritional deficiency can be the cause of allergies.
  • Poor digestion can be the cause of allergies.
  • Insufficient healthy bowel flora can be the cause of allergies.
  • Environmental toxins can be the cause of allergies.
  • Understanding the non-drug approach to treating the CAUSES of Allergies .

In previous issues of “Dr. Chapa’s News You Need to Know” we have addressed each of these important principles of HealthBuilding. Please refer to Issue 3 for digestive support, Issue 5 for the importance of bowel flora, Issue 6 for the importance of purification of the body for health, and Issue 7 for simple ways to enhance the immune system. And always take Catalyn to prevent nutritional deficiency.
Even though we eat the right foods, support the body with digestive enzymes, probiotics, organic minerals and vitamin complexes, we may still experience symptoms of ALLERGIES from time to time. Reactions such as sneezing, wheezing, running nose, itchy eyes and many others are caused by the release of histamine in the affected body tissues.

Question: Should I use anti-histamines when I feel allergic symptoms?

Histamine is involved in myriad physiological conditions, all with the goal of supporting healing. When antibodies bind with foreign substances, histamine is released to begin a process of flooding the irritated tissue with healing fluids. This inflammatory reaction can be quite uncomfortable, but is a necessary part of the healing process. One does not want to inactivate histamine, although it is ideal to clear the histamine from our tissues efficiently after it has done its job.
Drug forms of antihistamine may interfere with the healing purposes of histamine, and frequently have side effects. More importantly, these drugs may be altogether avoided by supporting normal body processes. What we need is a natural product that helps the body handle the histamine reactions, relieve symptoms, and support healing. For this exact purpose we recommend:

Antronex© which contains Yakriton, a liver fat extract discovered in the 1920’s. Yakriton has been shown to help the liver efficiently filter the blood, removing excess histamine and toxins from the blood.
Protection of the stomach, nasal passages, lungs, liver and kidneys is the ultimate HealthBuilding goal when it comes to strengthening the body to handle allergic reactions. A whole food concentrate product which supports all these body systems is appropriately named Allerplex ©.
Allerplex© is a special combination formula of whole food concentrates containing a wide variety of nutrients effective in helping maintain a healthy immune system. Allerplex is useful in supporting proper acid/alkaline balance, and sustaining healthy liver function. Allerplex has been used by doctors since 1959 for this very purpose.
General Whole Food Guidelines for Allergic People

  1. Live a healthy lifestyle with whole foods and whole food concentrates as outlined in The Nutritional Essentials – Issues.
  2. Take Allerplex 1-3 per day for life .†
  3. When symptoms of allergies are on the rise, take 1-3 Antronex per hour to help the liver clear out histamines until symptoms subside†.

Patients Speak About Allergies
“My entire life I suffered bad allergies. Sneezing, runny nose so bad at times they would lay me out! My nutritional program has entirely cleared this up, AND my chronic cough I have had for over 10 years GONE!!” D.M.M.

What Did you Learn

Bacteria Can Be Good – Probiotics Build Health

Bacteria Can Be Good – Probiotics Build Health

The word biotic is from the Greek biotikos meaning: of or relating to life. We often use the word anti-biotic. Which means, “against life.” Antibiotics kill bacteria but not all bacteria should be killed. In fact, “healthy bacteria” are a health building essential to life, vitality and wellbeing.

Healthy bacteria in the soil feed nutrients through the roots of plants to help them grow and flourish, providing us with wholesome foods. Healthy bacteria in the human body protect and feed us in the same way, by helping with digestion and assimilation of essential nutrients.

That’s right! Every healthy person has within their intestines a colony of bacteria nearly as large as their liver. It is estimated that a healthy person maintains more healthy bacteria than the total number of cells making up their body! The human body has approximately 13 trillion cells, a healthy bacterial colonization of the inside and outside of the human body is estimated at 14 trillion microbes of various types. These healthy colonies do the job of keeping unhealthy bacteria in check, and more.
Healthy bacteria in your body:
√ Acidify the intestinal tract to make it uninhabitable by unhealthy bacteria, thereby supporting the
immune system.
√ Assist in the breakdown of carbohydrates and digestion of milk products.
√ Provide for better food assimilation and toxin release by the large intestine.
√ Healthy bacteria in the intestines can even create for you some vitamins you might not get otherwise!

These healthy bacteria have become known as PROBIOTICS. Published medical journals have featured PROBIOTICS over recent years. A recent MedLine search (published medical research internet site) showed 1813 probiotic citations, including 175 discussions of clinical trials. A search of the same site for dates before 1990 showed only 13 citations. All of these studies indicate the varied benefits of healthy bacteria in our environment. Interesting to note, since these healthy bacteria have been serving human beings for thousands of years, why would they only recently come to the attention of medical researchers?

Antibiotics
Antibiotic use is likely the reason the health “industry” has recently been paying attention to the value of healthy bacteria. That’s because healthy bacteria silently served their healthful purpose until antibiotics came along. Antibiotics kill healthy bacteria, upseting Nature’s balance within us and lead to disorder and disease.
That right! When antibiotics are used, the healthy bacteria are killed right along with the unhealthy ones. We need to do something proactive to make sure the healthy bacteria can live in our environment serving Nature’s purpose. If for any reason we take antibiotics, then we need to re-establish the healthy bacteria of our body. In fact, the same urgency which the “health industry” applies to antibiotics needs to be applied to probiotics.
The health problems that the published literature shows are improved by probiotic use are the very same conditions that often follow antibiotic use. If you or anybody in your family experiences these conditions from time to time you need to consider becoming proactive with probiotics.

Take a look at this brief list of conditions:
Diarrhea
Allergies
Immune System weakness
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Hypertension
Vaginal Infections
Kidney Stones
Lactose Intolerance

Probiotics Foods are a Nutritional Essential
Probiotics have been shown to help these conditions, but the real truth is that anything that disrupts the normal functions of the body (like antibiotics and refined foods) could cause any of the signs and conditions linked with nutritional deficiency. See side panel on front page.

Build Your Health with Probiotics
As long as humans have been civilized, food health has been enhanced with the assistance of probiotics. Every culture of the world has some type of food that is “cultured,” such as, yogurt, kefir, buttermilk and sauerkraut. It is important to include probiotics foods as a part of your lifestyle.

If you have taken antibiotics within the last few years, or if you suffer from any of these conditions listed above, we recommend you build your health with one or all of these whole food PROBIOTIC foods and support products listed below. The truth is that every person—men, women and especially children and older family members—would benefit from one or more of these supplements:

Total Probiotics – Is a gastrointestinal support that combines digestive enzymes with normal intestinal probiotics. Lact-Enz can be used for lactose intolerant people to help them digest milk products. Babies with colic are known to respond to a small amount of Lact- Enz on the finger during feeding. Contains: various digestive enzymes, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium longum.

CATAPLEX AC – Establishes the proper acid / alkaline (pH) balance vital for nutrient absorption. Improves protein and mineral assimilation, especially calcium. This product is designed to support the digestive lining and make it more hearty.

Pro-Symbiotic – Aids in the establishment and maintenance of normal intestinal flora and proper pH, creating and maintaining a healthy intestinal environment.

Zymex II – Supports the healthy function of the gastrointestinal system by providing various digestive enzymes. This digestive enzyme product is supportive to the acid sensitive individual. This product is also very effective in correcting conditions of the bowel where unhealthy microbes have become colonized.
Ask me which ones may help you!

Patients Speak about Probiotics

“The doctors all told me I had fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome. I was bloated, with stiff and painful joints and muscles—that is all I know. I started taking some food supplements to improve my intestines and the bloating and the stiffness went away. You can share this with anyone you like.” R.Z.

What Did You Learn?

Skin Care Exposed Part 1

Skin Care Exposed Part 1

People don’t realize the danger of some of the ingredients in their skin care products. Products using toxic ingredient’s will not fulfill their promise of keeping you looking beautiful and radiant, and can have devastating long-term effects on your skin, your health, and our environment.

You know I want you to read the label on everything and learn what foods are super foods and what foods are poisons to your chemistry. This concept is especially important to skin care as well. As a doctor, as a father of my children I know the frustrations we all share finding products we can rely on day in and day out. In skin care it is even harder to find products you can trust b/c regulations are not as tight on skin care products as they are in the food lines. Your skin is the largest organ of the body and it plays a vital role in our overall health. The function of your skin is to assist with detoxification, regulate temperature, protect us from external elements, and help our immune system fight off infection. The importance of our skin goes way beyond wrinkles and age spots.

Your skin is designed to be alive, dynamic, and changing. The life cycle of skin cells is about 28 days. By the time the cells make their way to the surface of the skin they have already died. New skin cells form in the lowest layer of the epidermis know as the base layer. When the cells are born, they are fluid-filed and plum, ready to make their journey upwards. These cells share space with elastin, the supportive fibers and protein that give skin its youthful elasticity. Age, the environment, our lifestyle, and many other factors can cause the production of collagen and elastin to decline, which can lead to sagging skin. As cells make their way to the surface of the skin, they become dehydrated and are ready to be rplaced by yourthful new cells formed in the base layer. The point is that in order to have radiant skin requires consistent production of bibrant new skin cells to replace the old ones.

Protecting the supportive fibers and protein cells is important. Preventing dehydration and encouraging proper respiration (oxygen usage) is critical to the process of healthy skin repair and rejuvenation. That being said you need to know that your skin is affected by anything it is exposed to. 60% of whatever it comes into contact with is absorbed. That is why knowing what we put on our skin, scalp, teeth, is so important. The average adult according to the Environmental Working Group (an organization spotlighting many of these toxic compounds found in skin care) uses nine personal care products each day. Each of these containing 126 unique and potentially dangerous chemicals. More than 25% of all women use at least 15 personal care products daily.

Would you put cancinogens (cancer-causing agents) on your skin everyday multiple times a day? One in five adults are exposed to all of the top cancer-causing impurities found in personal care products. Millions of people put these chemicals on the largest, most complex, and significant organs of the human body.