SUMMARY:  The ‘blue/black white/gold dress‘ incident is a really good way of acknowledging that people see and perceive things differently and one way is not necessarily superior to the other.  I see and appreciate this in every diet conversation I have.  I focus a lot on diet; but lifestyle tweaks help many achieve wellness when clean diet isn’t enough.  Initial microbiome studies show that stress can result in changes to the gut microbial community, specifically bacteria in the genus Lactobacillus are consistently reduced.  If clean diet isn’t enough, move onto stress busters that data shows literally reduce inflammatory markers — affirmations and meditation do such.

I use data, and you understand physiologic birth and breast feeding, OTC and prescription drugs like Proton Pump Inhibitors and oral contraceptives, antibiotics, NSAIDs, and about food and their choices: gluten, GMOs, sugar...   I use data and you understand the bi-directional relationship between the gut and brain and body organs… that cytokines are messengers that travel and communicate through the vagus nerve & microglia [a type of glial cell that are the resident macrophages of the brain and spinal cord, and thus act as the first and main form of active immune defense in the central nervous system (CNS)] that they interfere with feedback loops, hormones, immunity, and trafficking of neurotransmitters. I decimate and show false, the boundaries between immunology, autoimmunity, neurochemistry, and endocrinology.  

You understand there is no one magic diet for all as you arrive at your most anti-inflammatory diet based on your own unique genetics, epigenetic alterations, and goals.  But in so doing, how do you deal with that fishbowl feeling, be it with your health care provider, family, friends, or peers?  Affirmation and meditation are incredibly powerful stress busters as they literally reduce inflammatory markers; use them in addition to other strategies  such as exercise, reading, music, fishing, hiking, socializing…. How powerful are affirmations and meditation???

Affirmations, meditation, and yoga reduced inflammation-related proteins:   10% lower level of TNF-a,  11% lower IL-6, 15% lower IL-1B,  up to 20% reduction of inflammation, improved sleep, and a 57% decrease in fatigue.  Researchers believe the meditation and breathing aspect was the main contributor to reduced inflammatory markers.

The study:  In 200 breast cancer patients who had undergone surgery or radiation treatment, significant inflammatory marker reductions were realized:

Findings for 12 weeks of yoga  (researchers felt breathing and meditation aspects were main drivers of results):  Participants were first injected with a compound that provoked an immune response before giving blood samples.  Average lower levels of the inflammation-related proteins than the controls were: 10% lower level of TNF-a, 11% lower IL-6, 15% lower IL-1B, improved sleep, up to 20% reduction of inflammation, and a 57% decrease in fatigue. The study also showed the more yoga the women practiced, the bigger the improvements in fatigue, vitality, depressive symptoms, accompanied by increased reductions in two of the inflammation-related proteins, IL-6 and IL-1B.

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