Avoiding foods that you have a sensitivity to isn’t always easy, because some of the basic proteins of healthy plant foods, like lectin, can also cause health problems.
Knowing the symptoms of lectin sensitivity is important as well as knowing which foods have the most lectin. Your individual genetics may also mean that you have a different level of tolerance for lectin. You may have a sensitivity, for example, but your siblings may not.
The good news is that modern crops that contain lectin have been cultivated to contain less of the anti-nutrient lectin. Even if you have a lectin sensitivity, lectin-containing foods that are cooked may provide better nutrient absorption than raw grains and legumes. If you are not able to tolerate lectin, as a last resort, you can avoid lectin completely.
10 Signs You Have a Lectin Sensitivity
Previously we talked about gluten sensitivity in our article 10 Signs You Should Stop Eating Gluten Immediately. Lectin is very similar to gluten in that it is an anti-nutrient. Anti-nutrients are found naturally in plants and grains and when we consume them, they interfere with the absorption of other nutrients in our bodies.
Most people know someone with a sensitivity to gluten. Gluten can cause digestive intolerance symptoms in many people and lectins can do the same thing. The problem with lectins is that they don’t want to be digested.
Plants developed their anti-nutrient parts to protect their seeds from being digested by birds and animals. Lectin is important to the plant seed because it can protect the entire seed from being digested, and allow it to pass through the intestines as waste. One it exits, the seed may have survived to grow and become a new plant.
Lectin is believed to worsen autoimmune disease in people who have a lectin sensitivity. Lectin is so resistant to being digested that it can cross over into the circulation system where it can cause damage to cells.
The immune system responds to lectin by producing antibodies. A blood test for lectin antibodies may be the best way to find out if you have a lectin sensitivity. Talk to your health care professional if you are having any of the following symptoms.
1. Leaky gut
Dr. Mercola says ‘All grains contain glutinous proteins known as prolamines that can be very “binding,” as they are pasty substances our bodies were just not designed to breakdown correctly.’
‘Substances in grains, including gliadin and lectins, may increase intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut can cause digestive symptoms such as bloating, gas, and abdominal cramps.’
2. Fatigue
Lectin is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome in some people. The good news is that a dietary change could help resolve your tiredness problem and help you find your lost energy.
3. Mental health problems
A study of indigenous cultures with no access to wheat, which contains the anti-nutrient lectin, as compared to cultures that use wheat frequently found that ‘grain glutens are harmful to schizophrenics.” The study authors don’t imply that grains cause the mental illness schizophrenia but that lectin and gluten could trigger an autoimmune response in the body that is like a chemically induced mental illness.
Wheat products can also reduce the amount of the mood hormone serotonin, which can lead to depressed mood and symptoms of depression. This doesn’t mean that removing lectin from the diet could help cure mental illness but it might improve overall mood balance.
4. Skin rashes
Lectin sensitivity might show up externally in dry, itchy, flaky skin. Redness and itchiness are often the first signs of a problem.
5. Joint pain
Inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis is aggravated by lectin. Painful, swollen joints can be a serious health impact due to your decreased desire to exercise as a result of pain.
6. Allergies
Lectin sensitivity can show up as an allergic response. You may notice watery eyes, sniffling or sinus congestion, tightness in the throat, and itchy skin, mouth or tongue.
7. Nausea
Similar to the effect that a gluten sensitivity has on your body, a lectin sensitivity is not good for your appetite. Your body knows what is good for it and what is not and you may notice feeling nauseous when you are about to eat a food that contains lectin if your body has had a bad reaction to it before. Read our article, Love Your Gut – 3 Ways to Improve Digestive Health for more information.
8. Muscle weakness
Due to a lack of vitamin B12 being absorbed by the intestines, muscle weakness is likely. Not having good muscle strength can also lead to problems with balance and gait.
9. Numbness
The sensation of extremities falling asleep could be due to a lack of nutrients like B12 that are passed through the digestive system rather than being absorbed.
10. Susceptibility to illness
Getting sick more often could be due to having lecting sensitivity. If your immune system is already busy fighting off lectin, it has less resources to devote to fighting off bacteria as they enter your body.
Talk to your healthcare professional if you suspect a lectin sensitivity problem. You can also begin restricting your diet to eliminate individual grains, nuts, beans, tomatoes, melon, squash, dairy, eggs and all forms of potatoes if you would like to take control of your own health now.
Unvaccinated children's pose zero risk to anyone as by Harvard Immunologists. According to
An Open Letter to Legislators Currently Considering Vaccine Legislation from Tetyana Obukhanych, PhDDear Legislator:My name is Tetyana Obukhanych. I hold a PhD in Immunology. I am writing this letter in the hope that it will correct several common misperceptions about vaccines in order to help you formulate a fair and balanced understanding that is supported by accepted vaccine theory and new scientific findings.
Do unvaccinated children pose a higher threat to the public than the vaccinated?
It is often stated that those who choose not to vaccinate their children for reasons of conscience endanger the rest of the public, and this is the rationale behind most of the legislation to end vaccine exemptions currently being considered by federal and state legislators country-wide.
You should be aware that the nature of protection afforded by many modern vaccines – and that includes most of the vaccines recommended by the CDC for children – is not consistent with such a statement.
I have outlined below the recommended vaccines that cannot prevent transmission of disease either because they are not designed to prevent the transmission of infection (rather, they are intended to prevent disease symptoms), or because they are for non-communicable diseases.
People who have not received the vaccines mentioned below pose no higher threat to the general public than those who have, implying that discrimination against non-immunized children in a public school setting may not be warranted.
1. IPV (inactivated poliovirus vaccine) cannot prevent transmission of poliovirus.(see appendix for the scientific study, Item #1). Wild poliovirus has been non-existent in the USA for at least two decades. Even if wild poliovirus were to be re-imported by travel, vaccinating for polio with IPV cannot affect the safety of public spaces. Please note that wild poliovirus eradication is attributed to the use of a different vaccine, OPV or oral poliovirus vaccine. Despite being capable of preventing wild poliovirus transmission, use of OPV was phased out long ago in the USA and replaced with IPV due to safety concerns.
2. Tetanus is not a contagious disease, but rather acquired from deep-puncture wounds contaminated with C. tetani spores. Vaccinating for tetanus (via the DTaP combination vaccine) cannot alter the safety of public spaces; it is intended to render personal protection only.
3. While intended to prevent the disease-causing effects of the diphtheria toxin, the diphtheria toxoid vaccine (also contained in the DTaP vaccine) is not designed to prevent colonization and transmission of C. diphtheriae. Vaccinating for diphtheria cannot alter the safety of public spaces; it is likewise intended for personal protection only. Therefore unvaccinated children's don't cause any risk.
4. The acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine (the final element of the DTaP combined vaccine), now in use in the USA, replaced the whole cell pertussis vaccine in the late 1990s, which was followed by an unprecedented resurgence of whooping cough. An experiment with deliberate pertussis infection in primates revealed that the aP vaccine is not capable of preventing colonization and transmission of B. pertussis. The FDA has issued a warning regarding this crucial finding. [1]
Furthermore, the 2013 meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors at the CDC revealed additional alarming data that pertussis variants (PRN-negative strains) currently circulating in the USA acquired a selective advantage to infect those who are up-to-date for their DTaP boosters, meaning that people who are up-to-date are more likely to be infected, and thus contagious, Unvaccinated children's are more than people who are not vaccinated.
5. Among numerous types of H. influenzae, the Hib vaccine covers only type b. Despite its sole intention to reduce symptomatic and asymptomatic (disease-less) Hib carriage, the introduction of the Hib vaccine has inadvertently shifted strain dominance towards other types of H. influenzae (types a through f). These types have been causing invasive disease of high severity and increasing incidence in adults in the era of Hib vaccination of children (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #4). The general population is more vulnerable to the invasive disease now than it was prior to the start of the Hib vaccination campaign. Discriminating against children who are not vaccinated for Hib does not make any scientific sense in the era of non-type b H. influenzae disease.
6. Hepatitis B is a blood-borne virus. It does not spread in a community setting, especially among unvaccinated children's who are unlikely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as needle sharing or sex. Vaccinating children for hepatitis B cannot significantly alter the safety of public spaces. Further, school admission is not prohibited for children who are chronic hepatitis B carriers. To prohibit school admission for those who are simply unvaccinated – and do not even carry hepatitis B – would constitute unreasonable and illogical discrimination.
In summary, a person who is not vaccinated with IPV, DTaP, HepB, and Hib vaccines due to reasons of conscience poses no extra danger to the public than a person who is. No discrimination is warranted.
How often do serious vaccine adverse events happen?
It is often stated that vaccination rarely leads to serious adverse events.
Unfortunately, this statement is not supported by science.
A recent study done in Ontario, Canada, established that vaccination actually leads to an emergency room visit for 1 in 168 children following their 12-month vaccination appointment and for 1 in 730 children following their 18-month vaccination appointment (see appendix for a scientific study, Item #5).
When the risk of an adverse event requiring an ER visit after well-baby vaccinations is demonstrably so high, vaccination must remain a choice for parents, who may understandably be unwilling to assume this immediate risk in order to protect their children from diseases that are generally considered mild or that their children may never be exposed to. A lot of unvaccinated children's play important rule.Can discrimination against families who oppose vaccines for reasons of conscience prevent future disease outbreaks of communicable viral diseases, such as measles?
Measles research scientists have for a long time been aware of the “measles paradox.” I quote from the article by Poland & Jacobson (1994) “Failure to Reach the Goal of Measles Elimination: Apparent Paradox of Measles Infections in Immunized Persons.” Arch Intern Med 154:1815-1820:
“The apparent paradox is that as measles immunization rates rise to high levels in a population, measles becomes a disease of immunized persons.” [2]
Further research determined that behind the “measles paradox” is a fraction of the population called LOW VACCINE RESPONDERS. Low-responders are those who respond poorly to the first dose of the measles vaccine. These individuals then mount a weak immune response to subsequent RE-vaccination and quickly return to the pool of “susceptibles’’ within 2-5 years, despite being fully vaccinated. [3]
Re-vaccination cannot correct low-responsiveness: it appears to be an immuno-genetic trait. [4] The proportion of low-responders among children was estimated to be 4.7% in the USA. [5]
Unvaccinated children's may create some problems in future. Studies of measles outbreaks in Quebec, Canada, and China attest that outbreaks of measles still happen, even when vaccination compliance is in the highest bracket(95-97% or even 99%, see appendix for scientific studies, Items #6&7). This is because even in high vaccine responders, vaccine-induced antibodies wane over time. Vaccine immunity does not equal life-long immunity acquired after natural exposure.
It has been documented that vaccinated persons who develop breakthrough measles are contagious. In fact, two major measles outbreaks in 2011 (in Quebec, Canada, and in New York, NY) were re-imported by previously vaccinated individuals. [6] [7]
Taken together, these data make it apparent that elimination of vaccine exemptions, currently only utilized by a small percentage of families anyway, will neither solve the problem of disease resurgence nor prevent re-importation and outbreaks of previously eliminated diseases.
Is discrimination against conscientious vaccine objectors the only practical solution?
The majority of measles cases in recent US outbreaks (including the recent Disneyland outbreak) are adults and very young babies, whereas in the pre-vaccination era, measles occurred mainly between the ages 1 and 15.
Natural exposure to measles was followed by lifelong immunity from re-infection, whereas vaccine immunity wanes over time, leaving adults unprotected by their childhood shots. Measles is more dangerous for infants and for adults than for school-aged children.
Despite high chances of exposure in the pre-vaccination era, measles practically never happened in babies much younger than one year of age due to the robust maternal immunity transfer mechanism.
The vulnerability of very young babies to measles today is the direct outcome of the prolonged mass vaccination campaign of the past, during which their mothers, themselves vaccinated in their childhood, were not able to experience measles naturally at a safe school age and establish the lifelong immunity that would also be transferred to their babies and protect them from measles for the first year of life.
Luckily, a therapeutic backup exists to mimic now-eroded maternal immunity. Infants as well as other vulnerable or immunocompromised individuals, are eligible to receive immunoglobulin, a potentially life-saving measure that supplies antibodies directed against the virus to prevent or ameliorate disease upon exposure (see appendix, Item #8).
In summary:
1) due to the properties of modern vaccines, non-vaccinated individuals pose no greater risk of transmission of polio, diphtheria, pertussis, and numerous non-type b H. influenzae strains than vaccinated individuals do, non-vaccinated individuals pose virtually no danger of transmission of hepatitis B in a school setting, and tetanus is not transmissible at all;
2) there is a significantly elevated risk of emergency room visits after childhood vaccination appointments attesting that vaccination is not risk-free;
3) outbreaks of measles cannot be entirely prevented even if we had nearly perfect vaccination compliance; and
4) an effective method of preventing measles and other viral diseases in vaccine-ineligible infants and the immunocompromised, immunoglobulin, is available for those who may be exposed to these diseases.
Unvaccinated children's will not affect anyone.Taken together, these four facts make it clear that discrimination in a public school setting against children who are not vaccinated for reasons of conscience is completely unwarranted as the vaccine status of conscientious objectors poses no undue risk to the public.
Sincerely Yours,
~ Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD
Tetyana Obukhanych earned her Ph.D. in Immunology at the Rockefeller University, New York, NY with her research dissertation focused on immunologic memory. She was subsequently involved in laboratory research as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine, before fully devoting herself to natural parenting.
(Original Source: legislature.vermont.gov – Testimony Senate Health & Welfare Committee Wednesday April 22, 2015 H.98 – public records)
Editor’s Note: This article has been slighted edited to reflect the language from the letter submitted to the Vermont General Assembly on April 22, 2015. As part of the Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee, it is a matter of public record and accessible here.)
UPDATE: The above links on the Vermont government website no longer work. Here is a copy.
https://healthimpactnews.com/2017/harvard-immunologist-to-legislators-unvaccinated-children-pose-zero-risk-to-anyone/
There are lots of Ginger tea advantages. People have recognized and valued the amazing properties of ginger for centuries. It is a rich source of numerous nutrients and offers powerful antibacterial, antiviral, anti-parasitic and anti-inflammatory effects.
According to Rachael Link, MS, RD:
“As one of the most used dietary condiments in the world today, it’s no wonder that the benefits of ginger are pretty impressive. With its zesty, peppery flavor and its extensive list of health benefits, ginger root is equal parts delicious and nutritious. It’s versatile, easy to use and has been associated with everything from beating motion sickness to better brain function.
The health benefits of ginger are largely due to its antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties and content of therapeutic compounds like gingerol, shogaol, paradol, and zingerone.
Available in fresh, dried, ground, capsule and juice form, ginger root is easy to add to the diet and can have a lasting impact on just about every aspect of health.”
It is one of the richest vitamin C sources, and it is also in magnesium and other minerals, so it fortifies the immune system, helps digestion, relieves pain, cleanses the liver, and treats asthma and cardiovascular diseases.
Ginger tea is one of the best ways to reap all these benefits, and its regular consumption will:
Strengthen the Immune System –It is abundant in antioxidants and thus strengthens the immune system.
Fight Inflammation – The strong anti-inflammatory properties relieve muscle and joint pain.
Improve Blood Circulation –It prevents clogging of the arteries, boosts blood circulation, and lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Relieve Nausea – It is one of the best ways to treat nausea, vomiting, and motion sickness.
Fight Respiratory Problems – it relieves congestion and treats environmental allergies.
Improve Stomach Performance –Ginger tea helps digestion, helps the absorption of food, and prevents bloating
Relieve Stress – Another Ginger tea advantages is to Relieve Stress. Its healing powers relieve stress and reduce tension.
Relieve Menstrual Discomfort – It relaxes the muscles, and thus soothes menstrual cramps
Moreover, its regular intake will lower the risk of strokes, cleanse the liver, relieve headaches, prevent cancer, and dissolve kidney stones.
Here is how to prepare it:
Ingredients:
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric
- 1 cup of water
- Coconut milk
- Organic honey
Instructions:
Heat the water, and as soon as it starts to boil, add the ginger and turmeric. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes, and the coconut milk, and strain. Sweeten with honey, and enjoy it!
Source: www.organichomeremedies.com
