I know I've written on the subject before, but with more added research lately I feel it is important to touch on this from time to time. There is a bit new information here so sit tight and see what your "gut" feelings are on this subject now.

Intestinal permeability occurs when the lining of the digestive tract becomes leaky to toxins that cause chronic inflammation.  This permeability allows toxins to leak out of the digestive tract into the bloodstream.  When this happens an auto-immune reaction that can create pain and inflammation occurs in the body's tissues.

What causes such issues?  The use of NSAIDS, steroids, antibiotics, antihistamines, caffeine, alcohol, prescription drugs, nonprescription drugs all contribute to this intestinal stress that allows the mucosa permeable to toxins and undigested food particles.  

Intestinal permeability is associated with many illness, but studies show individuals with CFS and Fibromyalgia are especially plagued with it.  One program for CFS patients reduced allergic foods that caused stomach distress and had an 81.2% reduction in their symptoms.  Teemed with a solid nutritional supplement participants experienced less down-days during the study.  

Help for Intestinal Permeability

1. Supplement with digestive enzymes.
2. Start taking probiotics 2 - 3 times a day.
3. Begin an elimination diet to rule out an foods that may be triggering food sensitivities.
4. Make sure all your supplements are appropriate and you are taking the required dosages.
5. Try taking the amino acid L-glutamine which is the primary fuel for intestinal cell function.  

What a delightfully written book that oozes the pure passion of a lifestyle that's gone by.  I was unable to detain myself each evening as I rushed home to see what new event was opening in the lives of Om, Ishvar, Maneck, and Dina. 

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future. 

As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state. -amazon.com 

Not enough credit is given to a sound digestive system from our current medical practitioners when diagnosing fibromyalgia.  Yet, a healthy intestinal tract contains some two to three pounds of bacteria and other microorganisms, such as yeast, that normally don't cause health problems.  In fact, you have more bacteria in your body than you do cells!  You'd think with all the new research depicting the stomach and how it drives your well-being and immunity there'd be a bit more of a connection here.  After all, a sick stomach mimics many of the fibromyalgia symptoms.  

When the intestinal tract is repeatedly exposed to toxic substances such as antibiotics, steroids, and NSAIDS these microorganisms begin to multiply and create an imbalance in the bowel flora.  This is commonly known as intestinal dysbiosis.  As a result, a person becomes more susceptible to disease. For example, catch some Salmonella enteritidis and your chances increase from one in one hundred thousand to one in ten. 

Candida yeast, like bacteria, only cause problems when it gets out of control.  In a normal micro flora environment numerous good bacteria are attached to the inner surface of the intestines.  But when their numbers decline, Candida albicans is able to attach itself to the intestinal wall and insert a hook-like tentacle that creates increased permeability and allows toxins to lead across the membrane.  These toxins can create a myriad of health problems such as: 

• Candida yeast syndrome
  
• allergies
  

• eczema
  
• autoimmune diseases such as
  rheumatoid arthritis and lupus

• CFS/Fibromyalgia
• IBS
• colitis
  
• psoriasis
  
• B12 deficiency

To correct this overgrowth and over-activity of Candida yeast and other bad bacteria, you need to put more good bacteria back into your gut.  The only way this can be achieved is by taking probiotics.  The two most important are Lactobacillus (L. acidophilus, L. casei, and L. rhamnosus) and Bifidobacterium bifidum. 

Check out the unique assortment at Purtian's Pride below for quality, thrifty vitamins. 

Here's a delightful Christian-based story that will reconnect your faith in God. Superb singing accompanies this winner that will set your over-burden heart free!

Grace Unplugged is an Inspirational movie starring Amanda "AJ" Michalka as 18 year old Christian singer/songwriter, Grace Rose Trey. Beautiful, highly talented and restless, Grace is so far undiscovered outside church. She performs there each Sunday with her gifted father Johnny, the praise music director at Freedom Community Chapel, a small town Alabama church. A former rock star, Johnny Trey charted a Billboard number one single 20 years before. When the hits stopped coming he crash landed hard, a one hit wonder. Johnny found Christ and a new life for his family, far from the Hollywood Hills. One day without warning, Grace leaves for Los Angeles. She has landed a record deal with the help of Johnny's ruthless former manager and producer Frank "Mossy" Mostin. Mossy sees in Grace a potential pop superstar - the next Katy Perry. Cutting off contact with her parents, Grace seems prepared to walk away from her Christian faith and music to achieve her long-suppressed fantasy of Hollywood super stardom. Will the experience cause her to reject her faith, or rediscover it? -IMDb    

Adrenal Fatigue is a stress-related condition that occurs when your adrenal glands, hypothalamus and pituitary gland (together – the HPA axis) are functioning below their optimal level. Although you might not have heard of the adrenals, they perform several vital roles in maintaining your health. Most importantly, they control your body’s response to stress by releasing hormones like cortisol, DHEA and epinephrine, which are used to regulate your heart rate, immune system, energy storage and more.


When the adrenal glands are overstimulated for a long period of time, they begin to weaken. Typical causes of Adrenal Fatigue include long term stress from jobs, relationship problems or even chronic disease. Eventually, the adrenals weaken so much that they are unable to respond adequately when we need them. At this point, many Adrenal Fatigue sufferers report symptoms like a feeling of constant tiredness, lack of enthusiasm and mild depression. Sleeping long hours does not help – they wake up just as tired as when they went to bed. And they often resort to large caffeinated drinks, sugary sodas or other stimulants to get through the day.

Adrenal dysfunction is not recognized by modern medicine until it becomes life-threatening, when the adrenal glands virtually cease to function in an autoimmune condition named Addison’s disease. But what many doctors (at least the unenlightened ones) fail to realize is that millions of us suffer from sub-optimal adrenal performance. Simply put, the adrenals and several other internal organs are still doing their job, but just not as well as they should. This might not qualify us for a trip to the ER, but it is certainly a major issue for those of us who suffer from it.

Try taking the Dysautonomia test to see if you are a candidate for adrenal fatigue.  Then follow the ten steps below to combate it and take back your health:

10 Steps to Adrenal Health

1. Sleep.  Make sure your sleep is consistent.  ReadKeep Your Sleep Time Consistent.
2. Take a multi-daily allowance multivitamin and mineral formula.
   
3. Take adrenal cortical extracts.  These help repair and restore adrenal function. Don't use whole glad adrenal or adrenal medulla glandular which can increase adrenaline levels.  These can put more stress on your already delicate stress-coping system and cause anxiety, rapid heart rate, and elevated blood pressure.
4. If your blood pressure runs low (90/60 or less) then increase your salt consumption.  Yes, it is OK to use salt.  By increasing your salt intake you'll help reduce inflammatory chemicals.  Salt is a natural antihistamine, and histamine.
5. Drink water.  It is recommended at least 70 oz. daily.
6. Always eat breakfast, and never skip meals.  If you have low adrenal function then you are probably not hungry when you wake up.  You may have gotten used to chemical stimulants instead like coffee, soda, or cigarettes to get you going.  These stimulants do not raise blood sugar and serotonin levels, but they increase adrenaline and cortisol levels which curb the appetite.  In the morning, your body needs to break the eight-hour fast it has been under  Your brain needs to be feed to function appropriately. I make the Fibromyalgia Breakfast Soup to combat early fatigue.  
7. Limit your consumption of adrenal-hormone robbers.  Start to eliminate: caffeine, nicotine, sugar, and alcohol in your diet.  It takes two to three weeks to wean off caffeine and stop headaches.
8. Try supplementing with DHEA.  It is best to get your DHEA levels tested before supplementing. Using DHEA boosts energy, sex drive, resistance to stress, immune system, mood, strength and stamina, and overall health.  
9. Increase vitamin C intake if necessary.  This is perhaps the most important nutrient in facilitating adrenal function and repair.  In fact, until it was possible for scientists to measure adrenal steroid hormones, vitamin C levels were used to judge adrenal health in animal studies.  It is recommended to take 1,500 - 1,800 mg. of vitamin C a day.  
10. Adopt the I don't care attitude.  Stop over doing  and trying to make things as they once were. You can't, acceptance is the first tool in recovery.  Learn to watch your stress signals and when things become overwhelming stop caring as much.  Often your perception of what needs to be done isn't reality.  Get in reality, you have a chronic illness, do what you can, and forget the rest.  Caring too much places unneeded stress on your adrenal glands.

Check out Puritan Pride's website for information on supplements mentioned above.  

Dysautonomia, as defined in the standard medical dictionary, is as follows: A rare hereditary disease involving the autonomic nervous system with mental retardation, motor in coordination, vomiting, frequent infections, and convulsion."  Sadly, most individuals who experience this syndrome, find symptoms no where near this degree of severity.  Hence it is one area that is usually looked over when acquiring a formal diagnosis.  Most dysautonomia patients are more likely to be suffering from mitral valve prolapse and dizziness upon standing than mental retardation and vomiting.

A better description, several practitioners are finding, is a malfunction in the body's master regulating system (homeostasis).  Many of you may know this as the autonomic nervous system or HPA axis.  The HPA axis (composed of the hypothalamus, pituitary glands, and adrenal glands) controls millions of involuntary actions such as: breathing, releasing endocrine hormones, blood flow, maintains smooth muscle tone, immune response, heartbeat, detoxification, and elimination.  This whole system envelopes all of the basic survival functions we know such as breathing and our heart pumping.  

Normally all the systems in the body communicate and work together.  This is the true meaning of homeostasis.  But when one takes out a loan on her savings account of stress-coping chemicals, her HPA axis begins to self-destruct.  This is dysautonomia.  Each body part begins conversing in a different language and no one knows what the other is saying!

You can do a simple test to check for dysautonomia.  You don't need that doctor's tilt-table to do a formal reading.  With new information on your side, you can ask your health practitioner to check for adrenal dysfunction.  True adrenal dysfunction takes years to reboot with solid nutrition and supplements.

The Test

1. Take your blood pressure while lying down.
2. Stand up and wait 30 seconds
3. Take blood pressure again while standing

A normal person's pressure will go up 10 or more points.  Those that suffer from dysautonomia will decrease instead by usually 10 or more points.  

If you're feeling bound by unnatural occurrences that inhabit your body, then tune into this one and see how fate turned one woman's fortune.  

Jason Reitman's Labor Day, adapted from the novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard, stars Kate Winslet as Adele, an emotionally shaky single mom to Henry (Gattlin Griffith). As the twosome shop for clothes Henry will wear when he begins seventh grade after the long Labor Day weekend, the boy is accosted by Frank (Josh Brolin), an escaped convict with a bleeding wound on his stomach. Frank manipulates Adele into letting him hide out at their house, and soon the seemingly scary man shows a strong domestic side and, in just a few days, develops a deep bond with both Adele and Frank. Co-starring Brooke Smith, J.K. Simmons, andTobey Maguire, Labor Day screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi -Fandango

Once you get through the first 200 pages building the setting, characters, and such, this one will keep you on the edge of your seat.  Written in a fashion that transports you back into the 1920's, Sarah Waters hits the mark.

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guestsis Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet. - Amazon.com

Full of holiday fun, with an emphasis on some fantastic singing, this one really tops the season of "feel-good-movies".

Holly, blessed with an amazing singing voice, is all set to audition for the newly vacated spot in a legendary local Christmas group which was founded by her late mother years ago. Shocked and upset when the slot goes to the barely talented best friend of the group's leader, Marci, Holly sets out to create her own musical group, The Mistle-Tones. After challenging their rivals to a sing-off on Christmas Eve, Holly finds herself on a journey to the real meaning of Christmas with some new friends and a new love thrown in for good measure. - IMDb

Homeopathy means 'same suffering' and is based on the belief that 'like cures like'.  Substances that can provoke symptoms in a well person can also relieve the same symptoms in a person who is ill.  For example, bee stings will cause a swollen, inflamed area and apis, which is made from bee stings, is often prescribed for arthritis suffers with swollen tender joints.  

Homeopathy is a safe, gentle, and natural system of healing that works with your body to relieve symptoms, restore itself, and improve your overall health.

The homeopath regards symptoms as the body’s healthy attempt to restore itself to balance. That is why a homeopath will choose a remedy that supports the symptoms—rather than opposing them or suppressing them as in conventional medicine. In conventional medicine, a cold or hay-fever sufferer is given an antihistamine to dry up the runny nose and watery eyes artificially. But this medication often comes with unpleasant side effects like sleepiness and constipation. With the correct homeopathic remedy, however, there are no side effects and a person is restored to health naturally. 

Homeopathic medicines – known as “remedies” – are made from natural sources (e.g., plants, minerals), and are environmentally friendly and cruelty free. Most are available over the counter in grocery stores, drug stores, health food stores, homeopathic pharmacies, and online. They are also extremely affordable. Homeopathic remedies when used as directed, are completely safe for everyone – including pregnant and nursing women, infants, children, and adults. They are given in such small doses that they don’t cause side effects.

A study of 30 fibromyalgia sufferers of the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Pharmacology reported  that those taking homeopathic remedy Rhus tox had significantly bigger improvements in the number of tender points and overall quality of life.  

Below are a list of homeopathic remedies, along with the fibromyalgia related symptoms for which they are prescribed.  Simply choose the remedy with the indications that most closely match your symptoms.  Follow the dosage instructions on the product.  Check and see if a homeopathic doctor is paid for on your insurance plan to get an even better overall diagnosis.

Arnica
Fibromyalgia brought on by an accident or traumatic event.  Pain that feels like bruising and is worse when you touch the affected area.

Bryonia
Tight muscles and pain that worsens with movement and warmth; headaches and irritability.

Causticum
Sore, weak, stiff muscles that are worse when overused or in cold weather and better with warmth.  Tight, sore leg muscles and restlessness at night.

Cimicifuga
Muscular spasms, jerking and twitching, and feeling sore and bruised all over.  Pain usually in the back, neck and shoulders that improves with warmth.

Gelsemium
Heavy limbs, headaches, and dizziness.  Symptoms are worse after exertion and in cold,damp weather.

Hypericum
Nerve pain, especially prickly pain, numbness, or tingling.  Pain that is worse with movement and when affected area is touched.  Also beneficial for fibro-related depression.

Rhus tox
Pain and stiffness that worsens when you first start moving around and improves with heat; restlessness and impatience.