There are many different kinds of hair problems, from dry or oily hair to premature hair loss, but most are linked to what you eat. Oily hair can occur with vitamin B deficiency. Dry or brittle hair is often a sign of essential fat deficiency. Poor hair growth, or loss of colour, is a sign of zinc deficiency. Hair loss is connected with general nutritional deficiency, especially a lack of iron, vitamin B1, vitamin C or lysine (an amino acid). Some hair supplements contain all these.
Massaging the scalp also helps, as does hanging upside down, including headstands and ‘inversion’ poses in yoga, which improve circulation to the scalp. The combination of optimum nutrition, stimulating scalp circulation and correcting underlying hormonal imbalances has proved the most effective answer for hair loss. Unfortunately there is no answer yet for grey hair, or any apparent connection with nutrition.
Diet advice
Make sure you do not go short of essential fats and water. Avoid sugar and stimulants like tea, coffee and chocolate.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral (with 10mg iron and 10mg zinc)
• 2 x Essential Omega 3 and 6 oil capsules
• 2 x Vitamin C 1,000mg
• Lysine 1000mg (for hair loss only)
Unless you have rotten teeth or gums, bad breath rarely has anything to do with the mouth, which is why breath fresheners don’t help.
The most common underlying reason is that your stomach isn’t digesting food properly. You may not, for instance, be producing enough hydrochloric acid (HCl), the substance that digests food in the stomach. Food will then be left fermenting in your stomach, which is what makes your breath smell.
Diet advice
You can buy HCl in capsules, usually in the form of betaine hydrochloride. Take 300mg with each meal. As stress interferes with the body’s HCl production, chill out over meals: chew your food well, and relax when you sit down to eat.
The symptoms of excess alcohol are half dehydration and half intoxication. Once the liver’s ability to detoxify alcohol is exceeded the body produces a toxic substance and it is this that brings about a headache. The advice below, if followed before drinking, will reduce any ‘morning after’ symptoms. So will drinking masses of liquid, which dilutes the alcohol. Needless to say, drinking large amounts of alcohol is not optimum nutrition!
Diet advice
Eat pure foods that will not add to the body’s toxic burden. Fruit and vegetable juices, high in antioxidants, are very beneficial, as is lots of water – 2 litres (31/2 pints) in a day. Also drink cat’s claw tea.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral (preferably with molybdenum)
• 6 × Vitamin C 1,000mg (1 every two hours)
• 3 × Antioxidant complex
• L-glutamine powder, 5g in water
Even though allergic reactions to pollen are the identified cause of hay fever, other factors make one person more likely to sneeze than another. The incidence of hay fever has risen dramatically in cities compared to rural areas, which led to the discovery that pollutants such as exhaust fumes prime the immune system to react. During the summer the air in polluted areas contains more free radicals due to the action of sunlight on oxygen molecules, so city-dwellers breathe in more pollutants.
Taking a good all-round antioxidant supplement containing vitamins A, C and E, betacarotene, selenium and zinc, plus the amino acids cysteine, cysteine or glutathione, helps increase your resistance (the most effective form of these amino acids is N-Acetyl Cysteine, sometimes called NAC, and ‘reduced’ glutathione).
The amino acid methionine, in combination with calcium, is an effective anti-histamine. You need to take 500mg of l-methionine with 400mg of calcium twice a day. Vitamin C helps to control excessive histamine levels. Vitamin B6 and zinc have a role to play in balancing histamine levels and strengthening the immune system. Vitamin B5 helps reduce symptoms.
The three most common substances reacted to are pollen, wheat and milk. Although there is no proven connection, it is interesting to note that all these are originally grass products. It may be that some hay fever sufferers become sensitised to proteins that are common to grains, grasses and possibly milk. In any event, dairy products encourage mucus production. Similarly, modern strains of wheat are high in gluten, which irritates the digestive tract and stimulates mucus production.
Diet advice
Avoid or at least limit wheat, dairy products and alcohol. Eat plenty of antioxidant-rich fruit and vegetables, plus seeds rich in selenium and zinc. Where possible, avoid exposure to pollen and traffic fumes.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral (providing B6 100mg and zinc 15mg)
• 2 x Antioxidant complex
• 3 × Vitamin C 1,000mg
If you are really suffering try . . .
• L-methionine 500mg twice a day
• Calcium 400mg twice a day
• Pantothenic acid 500mg twice a day
There are many causes of headaches and migraines, ranging from blood sugar drops, dehydration and allergy to stress and tension, or a critical combination. Peaks and troughs in adrenalin and blood sugar can bring on a headache. Often they go away with optimum nutrition. If they persist, look carefully at the possibility of allergy. See if you can notice any correlation between the foods you eat and the incidence of headaches.
For migraine sufferers, instead of taking an aspirin, or migraine drugs that constrict the blood vessels, try taking 100–200mg of vitamin B3 in the niacin form, which is a vasodilator. Start with the smaller dose: this will often stop or reduce a migraine in the early stages. It is best to do this at home in a relaxed environment, so the customary warm blushing sensation will probably not bother you.
Diet advice
Eat little and often and avoid long periods without food, especially if you are stressed or tense. Also make sure you drink regularly. Avoid sugar and stimulants like tea, coffee and chocolate.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral
• Vitamin C 1,000mg
• B3 niacin 100mg
Others appear to have too much acid production or have ‘leaking’ of stomach acid out of the circular muscular valve at the top of the stomach into the oesophagus. This may be diagnosed as gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) In an extreme form this is called ‘hiatus hernia’. One common reason for heartburn is eating a food you are allergic to. Babies, when given milk too early, regurgitate it. This normal reflux is what the body does to get rid of something that doesn’t suit it. If you keep eating the wrong foods, this can weaken the circular muscle at the top of the stomach until some stomach acid enters the oesophagus, producing symptoms of heartburn. Other things that aggravate the digestive tract include alcohol, coffee and NSAID pain killers (eg aspirin and ibuprofen), and should be avoided if you have indigestion. But most important is to test for food allergies or intolerances.
High protein foods such as meat require a greater release of stomach acid, so have smaller portions. High protein diets, for this reason, can be aggravating for some.
Another possible cause for digestive pain is the presence of stomach ulcers, often caused by infection with Helicobacter pylori (see ‘stomach ulcers’ for more details on this). Other gut infections from bacteria, yeasts (see ‘candida’ on page xx) or parasites can cause digestive symptoms.
Also try supplementing a combination of digestive enzymes, probiotics (beneficial bacteria) and glutamine.
The herpes virus feeds off an amino acid called arginine. If you supplement lysine, an amino acid that looks like arginine, you fool the virus and effectively starve it. I recommend supplementing 1,000mg of lysine every day, away from food, to keep the virus at bay. When you have an active infection, supplement 3,000mg of lysine a day and cut right back on foods rich in arginine, which include beans, lentils, nuts and chocolate. The more stressed you are, the weaker your immune system becomes and the more chances the virus has to become active. A good way to boost your immune system is to supplement 2g of vitamin C every day. Some people also find MSM reduces an infection. Worth trying if lysine doesn’t clear things up.
Diet advice
Avoid arginine rich foods during an attack. These include beans, lentils, nuts and chocolate.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and mineral
• 2 x Vitamin C 1,000mg
• 1 × Lysine 1,000mg (take 3g a day during active infection)
• 1 x MSM 1,000mg (take 3g a day during active infection)
Hypertension or high blood pressure can be caused by atherosclerosis (a narrowing and thickening of the arteries), arterial tension or thicker blood. Arterial tension is controlled by the balance of calcium, magnesium and potassium in relation to sodium (salt). Stress also plays a part. Correcting this balance can lower blood pressure in thirty days. Vitamins C and E and fish oils high in EPA and DHA help to keep the blood thin.
Diet advice
Follow a diet avoiding salt and foods with added salt. Increase your intake of fruit (eat at least three pieces a day) and vegetables, which are rich in potassium. Take a tablespoon of ground seeds as a source of extra calcium and magnesium. Unless you are vegetarian, eat poached, grilled or baked tuna, salmon, herring or mackerel twice a week.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral
• Antioxidant
• 2 × Vitamin C 1,000mg
• Bone mineral complex (providing 500mg calcium and 300mg magnesium)
• EPA/DHA fish oils 1,200–2,400mg or eat oily fish
• Providing vitamin E 400mg
The main focus of current research is on antioxidant nutrients that strengthen the immune system.
Leading researcher Dr Raxit Jariwalla from the Linus Pauling Institute in California has shown vitamin C’s ability to suppress the HIV virus in laboratory cultures of infected cells. He found that with continuous exposure to ascorbic acid (vitamin C), in concentrations not harmful to cells, the growth of HIV in immune cells could be reduced by 99.5%. Dr Jariwalla suggests that in healthy humans a daily dose of at least 10g is needed for an anti-viral effect. N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), an altered form of the amino acid cysteine that is a powerful antioxidant, has also been found to have anti-viral properties. Dr Jariwalla discovered that adding vitamin C to NAC created an eightfold increase in anti-HIV activity.
Diet advice
Eat a high-energy, whole food organic diet packed with fresh fruit and vegetables and their juices. Eat fish rather than meat. Drink cat’s claw tea twice a day to boost the immune system.
Supplements
• 2 x Multivitamin and multimineral
• 2 x Antioxidant complex
• 2–10 × Vitamin C 1,000mg (2g every four hours up to bowel tolerance)
• 1–4 x N-A-Cysteine 1,000mg
Hives is also known as Urticaria. This is almost certainly an allergic reaction. It could be caused by suspect foods (gluten, dairy foods, eggs, citrus fruits, tea, coffee, chocolate and soya) or by chemical and pharmaceutical drugs or household products (washing powder, detergents).
If you have any reaction try to isolate which is the product that is causing it, in order to avoid it.
