Public awareness of the importance of a gluten free lifestyle is increasing rapidly.  I just read this article on CNN Health that describes some of this new thinking going on in the health community about gluten's impact on health.  And I have heard from several patients about a commentary by Dr. Oz on the subject.  The word is spreading - but what is the word actually saying?

Unfortunately from what I am seeing, the word that is spreading is not about health.  The gluten free message is like so many other medical perspectives - the search for a simple fix for a vastly deep and complex problem.  It is becoming another form of the "what pill do I take to make all my problems go away so I can do whatever I want without consequence."  The wording has simply changed to "what food do I avoid to make all my problems go away...".

This approach does not work.  It has never worked.  Life is hugely complex and deeply interconnected.  That is its strength and its beauty.  It is its depth and complexity that gives us resilience in the face of difficulties.  If life were simple then the first plague that came along would wipe out all human life on earth.  It is our complexity and individual differences that makes sure that some of us always survive life's challenges to carry the human species onward.  But this complexity and individuality also means that there are no simple answers and no ways to be able to do whatever we want without paying the consequences.

A year ago I learned I was gluten intolerant and I started on the gluten free life.  Although I had no obvious symptoms, I was concerned about brain inflammation causing Alzheimer's or other brain malfunctions.  The brain is the primary target organ for gluten intolerance and I have noticed less mental stamina (number of hours I can study) and memory loss.  I saw gluten as the possible cause and felt it could compromise my future health so I eliminated it from my life.  Because I understood about cross reactivity between all the cereal grains as well as with dairy products, I eliminated them as well.  A completely unexpected side effect of this lifestyle change has been the loss of 60 pounds of unneeded weight.  I count this as a good thing.

Although this article is titled "Gluten Free is not Enough", it could just as easily be titled "Vegetarianism is not Enough", or "Paleolithic is not Enough", or "Any Diet is not Enough".

I have spent a lifetime learning what to do to create health in the body and mind.  Finding a specific "enemy" like gluten does not change all the rest of what I know is necessary to create health.  We still have to stay away from simple sugars and carbohydrates.  We have to stay away from toxic food additives, seed oils, deep fried foods, and all the rest of the health destroying pretend foods that fill our grocers shelves. (Check out the three Health Priorities articles on my website at  http://www.fairoakshealth.com/node/8). 

We still need plenty of good food, exercise, sunshine, loving relationships, an empowering contribution to life, and a deep inner spiritual connection to realize health. 

Eliminating gluten is just a tiny subset of one step on the path to health - the "don't eat poisons" step.  There are many more steps.  A good review of some of these other steps appeared in this newsletter over a year ago as the Health Challenge Series (http://www.fairoakshealth.com/node/20).  We also want to remember the really basic health stuff:
     1.  Exercise right
     2.  Sleep enough
     3.  Get Sunshine
     4.  Breathe clean air
     5.  Drink clean water
     6.  Eat right
     7. Eliminate wastes

Health is a lifestyle of successful adaptation to environmental and personal growth stresses.  Pain avoidance is not the same thing as successful adaptation in life.  The medical approach is based on the need for immediate survival.  It was designed for battlefield situations and emergencies.  Pain avoidance is appropriate in these situations as pain compromises survival in the medical setting.  Medicine is not about health - it is about emergency survival.  This is why the medical model has failed so badly at improving the health of Americans today. 

Medicine is based on an authoritarian or parent - child model.  This works well in survival situations.  Someone needs to be in charge when life or death decisions have to be made.  Health is a whole different process.  Health requires personal empowerment and motivation because health comes from hundreds of tiny choices made every day.  Health also requires paying close attention to internal body feedback messages.  Only you can do this.  You doctor can not follow you around making those hundreds of choices based on internal feedback from feelings in your body.

Avoiding poisons (like gluten if you are gluten sensitive) is an important rule your mind can grasp and simply follow.  Your mind is like that doctor telling you what to do and not to do.  But avoiding poisons is not enough to gain health.  Health requires you to feel.  Everything from feeling your back muscles when you go to lift something - they will tell you if it is too heavy, to feeling your tummy after the first bite you take of a food to know if it is going to sit well with you.  Feel your leg muscles to see if they are limber and happy or getting stiff from not enough exercise.  Feel your diaphragm and your jaw to see if you are tense and need to form a better relationship with someone or some aspect of life.  Feel your face and eye muscles to see if you are genuinely happy or just faking it.  Faking it breaks down your health.

The feeling list goes on and on.  Most of us don't really like to feel, because when we do we have to feel all the bad feelings that come from making poor choices.  We would rather take a pill, or a drink, or a recreational smoke, or a slice or two of organic carrot cake and pretend we are really doing all right.  You might fool the brain, but you are not fooling your body.  We need those feedback feelings to let us know when we need to upgrade our skills in relating to life and ourselves.  Feeling bad is ok.  It is guidance toward our improved health and happiness.

Yes, building new skills for relating to life is scary because it involves a lot of trial and error.  None of us like the error stage.  But it is the only way to achieve health in each aspect of our existence.  No one can do it for us.  Nor can life change its nature to be what we want so we can avoid having to adapt to what is.

The false promise of medicine lies here in the belief that if we just do what the doctor tells us, we will be healthy.  Look around - it is not working.  Health means self-responsibility.  I like to expand that phrase to self-response-ability; the ability to respond to our feeling feedback messages and adapt our behaviors to produce a better result.

We can do it.  We don't like the discomfort of feeling and making fresh choices in each moment.  We prefer our habits - or what I call our habit prison.  We may not actually like the results of our habits, but at least we know what outcomes to expect.  But without feeling the discomfort, how will we know when we have achieved the ease that flows when we come into a relationship with life that really works?  To feel the good, you have to be willing to feel the bad.  To not feel is to avoid living.

It is ok to feel - whatever you feel.  It is all just feedback to guide you to your happiness.

So simply avoiding poisons (like going gluten free) is not enough.

Take care of yourself.

Good Journey,

 

 

david@fairoakshealth.com

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years.  He began experimenting with  medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis.  In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education.  Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic.  He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice. 
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health. 
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities. 
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth.  The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework.  Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

Dr David DeLapp DC
Chiropractor

Ellen Flowers FGM
Spiritual Life Coach

 

Somatic Therapies

 

Lorena Morales