Defending the G.A.R.D.

[DogtorJ]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to start another thread base on a correspondence that I just had with someone who stated that they were "on the GARD" and not really seeing results.

When I receive Emails of this nature, the first thing I do is ask for them to send me a complete list of the foods they are eating along with any supplements they take and the area of the country in which they reside. The latter is important because, as much as people don't really want to talk about it, air (and water) quality play a HUGE role in our health, especially in the development and severity of neurodegenerative and immune-related disorders. Epilepsy is really both, especially when we grasp the role of viruses in this condition.

Invariably when I receive the food list, I find items on there that violate the diet. Granted, I do understand how difficult it is to identify and remove all products with gluten (wheat, barley, rye), dairy (eggs are NOT dairy), soy and corn. BUT, an individual is not "on the GARD" unles they have done so. Certainly, there are hidden sources of these things that are very difficult...if not impossible...to remove from the diet but the vast majority of us will recover from our food-related illness if we remove the obvious ones. However, we cannot expect great results by simply cutting back. In other words, we cannot expect our seizures to resolve of we cut out white bread, donuts, cookies but still eat pizza and Ezekiel bread (the latter NOT being gluten-free).

It is important to understand HOW the lectins of gluten, dairy, soy and corn do what they do and how the additional ingredients (e.g the glutanate and estrogens) in these trouble foods pour gas all over this fire. That is what the Epilepsy section of my Website is all about so feel free to read about that there.

For now, here is a letter that I wrote to someone who was struggling with epilepsy and trying to do the GARD. I hope it gives some new insight into what it really means to go on this diet.

John

***********************
Hi There,

The first thing that I need to emphasize (which you're not really going to want to hear) is that strictness is often THE key to success with this diet. Although you have made some good changes to your diet, you are not really "on the GARD diet" as long as you are eating wheat, dairy, and corn in the form of pizza and other products listed. And by the sound of things (e.g. digestive disorders), you really do need to tighten things up.

If you are a celiac or at best gluten sensitive, which we now know is a spectrum disorder, the amount of gluten you are consuming is more than enough to be perpetuating your problems. The official number of those suffering from celiac disease in this country is 1:120 Americans (Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic). The unofficial number by formal celiac researchers is 1:30. BUT, the newest numbers set by doctors studying the effects of gluten in humans is that 1:3 people may be gluten sensitive. Wow...1:3!!! That means that one out of three people are being affected by gluten in some negative way...gastrointestinal disorder, thyroid, pain, neurological, dermatological, etc.etc. The point being that not all people who are having some negative effect of gluten also have celiac disease,which is the full blown disorder that doctors have been looking for in order to say that wheat is affecting them. It is a spectrum disorder and doctors are now starting to see what I saw 8 years ago, that gluten is not GOOD for anyone. It is simply better tolerated by some than others.

So, if you are gluten sensitive and the lectins (antibody-sized particles derived from gluten) are challenging YOUR neurons and causing them to dysfunction (or at worst KILLING them), then the amount of gluten you are consuming is more than enough to keep your seizures going. In the dog, I have been able to completely eliminate the gross amount of gluten by feeding them potato-based commercial diets supplemented with meats, eggs, fruits and veggies. BUT, as you eluded to, there are lectins of gluten in the meats being fed, especially poultry, fowl, and pork...those simple-stomached animals that cannot ferment their food during digestion like the cattle do. So, I avoid these meats in my epi dogs and have seen results in doing so. (Yes, I have thought this through- forced to do so by trying to eliminate that last seizure in my patients, at which I have been quite successful. )

I'll be brutally honest with you...but candy-coat it a bit (which is an oxymoron). I know how hard it is for people to do this. I have been eating this way for 8 years and will NEVER return to me old diet. I am too highly functional now, which I need to be able to carry on this work and take it to the level that I am about to do. But I get a bit "disturbed" when people, especially those in the public eye and who have influence over others say "I have tried the GARD and it didn't work for me" or "We tried it for a while and it was just not helping my child, wife, or loved one." In each of these cases, I either found out or strongly suspected that they were not actually following the diet. Again, I know how hard it is even when people WANT to do the diet (there are lots of hidden sources) but we have to be strict in most cases if we want to see results. We have to be committed. It is MUCH more easily accomplished in the pet, I know. And I have seen in those pets how little of these foods it takes to produce a seizure. But this diet can and has been successfully utilized by people for all sorts of medical conditions and I now have success stories from people who were suffering from epilepsy, MS, peripheral neuropathies, lupus, and other serious conditions in addition to the usual gastrointestinal disorders, depression, allergies, et al.

Once again, I tell people to think "peanut allergy" when they are searching for an idea to hold on to that gives them a feel for just how sensitive an individual can be to one of these foods. Traces of gluten can trigger big problems, especially initially and especially when people have multiple sensitivities (e.g. concurrent problems with dairy, soy and/or corn). Most celiacs would not react soooo horribly to the trace amount of gluten remaining in their diet if they addresses their other sensitivities. That is what got me writing on celiac forums, reading about how some celiacs had been gluten-free for over two years and still not reached the level of wellness that they wanted or that I had. Many had no idea that dairy or corn was a BIG issue.

So, the good news is that you still have a GREAT chance of getting better. Your gastrointestinal stuff tells you that, too. That can go away in a real hurry if you do enough right. The neuralgia can also resolve but will take more time (3-6 months in some cases I have worked with) because the neurological system heals soooo slowly and some viral infections (e.g. Herpes) take time to resolve. We now know that Bell's Palsy, for example, is the same Herpes (varicella) that causes shingles. Why wouldn't other peripheral neuropathies be the same???

You are not officially on the GARD until you eliminate all gluten, dairy soy and corn. This can be done by eating meats, fruits, veggies, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and some rice. Nuts should be limited to a handful (not a jar full like most eat) and should exclude peanuts, soy's closest cousin. I would be taking an omega three fatty acid supplement, a good B complex, some C, and a multi with zinc. Avoid most Shaklee vitamin products as many of them contain barley flour. Read the labels of supplements to make sure there is no gluten, etc. The health food store has plenty that say right on the label "no gluten, dairy, soy or corn" and things like that.

I'm sorry to hear that you live (where you do). But seriously, much of that state is horribly polluted and we KNOW the neurological and immune suppressive effects of air pollution. BUT, I live in Mobile, AL which is loaded with neurotoxins and I am doing quite well as are my epi patients. But I also KNOW that when I leave here and go some place that is less polluted, I feel sooooooo much better. My biggest MS success story involved a woman living in Boston who went on the diet,made good improvements, but became TOTALLY well when she left Boston and moved to New Mexico. This makes perfect sense.

So, I say this not to cover my rear concerning the diet but because it is a fact and one that emphasizes the need to be strict on the diet. If someone lives in a non-polluted area, they may very well get away with some cheating on the diet. If another lives in a highly polluted city, then it may take very little in the way of a dietary mistake to create a big problem. Our body can take a lot of abuse but it is additive and there comes a point when we are at our insult limit so that it takes less and less to trigger problems like seizures. The good news is that we can reverse the process. The bad news is that it takes a MAJOR effort by some individuals. Most often, you can tell who those people are by their disease/condition list. You are still very recoverable!

I hope this helps. Please do keep in touch.

John

 

[Bernard]

I suspect that the need for strict adherence is required for success with the other seizure diets too - at least as pertains to the limitations on total carbohydrate intake.

If you are going to do something, give your best effort and do it right. That's the only way to find success in most facets of life.

 

[mamaruns]

Does the GARD diet help with catamenial epilepsy?

I tested positive to being allergic to 27 different foods a couple years ago. Yes, 27! I tried to eliminate all of them. My new "diet" lasted on three weeks, because I nearly starved to death. I didn't notice much of a difference in the way I felt because I was too hungry all the time.

How long are people usually on the GARD diet before they notice results? Maybe I'll try eliminating just the foods on that diet instead of everything I tested positive for and see how that works. I also can't help but wonder if these allergies are what are triggering my fibromyalgia.

 

[RobinN]

What you write John is certainly helpful to gather the resources emotionally and in hand to comply to the diet.

mamaruns - what is interesting which I learned from Doctor John is that there are estrogen rich foods. Estrogen excites the brain. So it certainly can have a positive reduction in catamenial seizures.

I noticed a drop in seizures when Rebecca is compliant. However even I need to clean up the choices. Not seeing an immediate reaction is hard to make the connection to the nutritional changes, yet all of the testimonials are positive when it is adhered to.

 

[DogtorJ]

The "Big 4", Estrogens and Secondary Food Allergies

The phenomenal thing to see is how the "big 4"-gluten grains (wheat, barley,rye), dairy, soy and corn- have numerous things wrong with them when it comes to epilepsy and our health in general. The "G.A.R.D." initially stood for the "glutamate/aspartate restricted diet" because it severely limited the two NON-essential amino acids glutamate (glutamic acid) and aspartate (aspartic acid), the parent proteins in MSG and NutraSweet respectively. These are known neurotoxins and triggers of seizures and were well described by Dr. Russell Blaylock in his book "Excitotoxins- The Taste that Kills". But what my work has shown is that the food sources of these proteins, of which the "big 4" are the richest, can do the exact same thing.

And one of the main reasons why the "big 4" are so harmful is that these particular foods do harm in numerous ways that set the brain up for the damage that can be done by the "excitotoxins". The most devastating effect is that of damage to the intestinal lining (villi), particularly the duodenum where the calcium, iron, iodine, B complex, C, and trace minerals are absorbed. (At this time of damage is when the body forms "allergies" to these foods.) This malabsorption of essential nutrients wreaks havoc on the brain and every other tissue of the body, including the liver which plays a big role in removing the glutamate from the blood and converting it to glutamine, the neurologically inactive form. See the interplay here and the spiral that develops, leading to worsening seizures? That is why the "G.A.R.D." also stands for the "gut absorption recovery diet" in that it restricts those foods that are damaging the villi and causing the poor absorption of our vital nutrients.

Another consequence of this damage is the formation of secondary food allergies. Once the damage is done and the natural barriers in the gut are disrupted, ANY protein passing through that damaged gut is subject to becoming an allergen. This is a known fact and is the explanation for celiacs (gluten intolerants) like myself having numerous other ("secondary") food allergies to things like eggs, tomatoes, tropical fruits, nuts, shellfish, etc). You sound like one of us!

But, on top of that, these same foods ARE loaded with estrogens. And estrogens in general are inflammatory, immune-suppressive, and neurostimulating (PMS anyone), a very bad combination for the epileptic, especially when see the role of viruses in seizure disorders. 70% of epileptic women have a strong catamenial pattern and this should be no surprise.

Soy, for example, is the richest source of glutamate that we consume but it is also the richest source of estrogen we can eat. So, can you see the spiral here? The soy can damage the gut causing malabsorption of nutrients that are needed by the brain and body to function normally while it then bombards the brain with sensitizing estrogens and then BLASTS it with high levels of the excitotoxin glutamate. Its like loading up your food with MSG right as you enter your menstrual cycle during a time that you brain is unhealthy from a viral infection. What a mess, right?

Now add in wheat and dairy which can do the exact some thing (ALL of these things) and make up 75% of the standard American diet. Whoa! And we haven't even discussed the fact that the other proteins from these foods...the LECTINS that they contain...can do direct harm to tissue cells, including neurons. Yes, these antibody-sized proteins we now call "lectins" can KILL neurons and incite inflammation in any tissue in the body, including brain, thyroid, joints, pancreas, blood cells, liver, kidneys and more. These four foods have been tied directly to type 1 diabetes (particularly cow milk), asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and numerous other immune-mediated ("autoimmune", a term I seriously dislike) diseases. I write about this extensively on my site.

As for the fibromyalgia, most of the symptoms are from the damaging effects to the pain centers of your brain. It is normal for our pain threshold to drop when we become ill. That is why we develop all of the body aches when we get the flu. Our pain threshold drops when we are ill for our own protection...to enforce rest. The main pathology in fibromyalgia is a pathologically low pain threshold. The GARD can perform miracles in these sufferers, just as it did in my case. How? I think you can see exactly how by the discussion above- by removing the things that are pounding away at your brain and also preventing the absorption of nutrients needed to stay healthy. Once we are healthy, our pain threshold goes back to where it should be. I tell people I am bullet-proof now. I played 45 holes of golf the other day and didn't even take an aspirin afterwards. I used to have to take my own cortisone just to play 9. Phenomenal recovery!

I hope this helps. My site goes into even greater detail. I have a section on the estrogens in food and on pain management. This should make sense. If not, please write to me.

John

 

[RobinN]

A recent letter I received from Dogtor John:

Dear Friends,

I am so glad that you have decided to go down this incredibly important path with me. My motivations for wanting to help come from two different areas: My hope that a person will never have to feel as ill as I have in the past and my deep desire for everyone to feel as good as I do now. Sadly, many have already gone much deeper into that abyss than I ever did but I have now learned how they, too, can recover to an extent that most never thought possible.

I no longer put any limitations on what this miraculous body can do, only on what we can accomplish as individuals to help our body make that recovery. As you have probably gleaned from the Website, I have found that most of our medical issues can really be classified as self-induced misery. But in saying that, I have to quickly add that most of what we have done to ourselves comes from our lack of knowledge (ignorance) of the ultimate consequences. I have had a few people with serious illness take offense to my blanket statements that we have brought this on ourselves. I would never want anyone to feel that my message is one of charging the afflicted with stupidity or an innate desire to be ill.

No, my basic tenet is that chronic illness arises from immunological insults that we sustain over time, many of which are completely avoidable if we only knew what they were. Certainly, most people know that smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, lack of sleep, and overtly poor diets will ultimately lead to ill health. But even then, addictions are powerful things and I have the utmost compassion for those who have fallen into their grasp. I usually include those items on my list of things-to-avoid for two reasons: To make the list complete and to put the other things- the "big 4" foods (gluten, dairy, soy and corn), food additives (e.g. MSG, aspartame, hydrogenated oils, sucralose), and environmental pollutants- on the same level as those bodily insults with which we are all familiar. Until nine years ago, I had no idea how the very staples of our diet were killing us and our pets- and I was a trained medical professional.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of avoiding the "big 4" once these foods have been determined to be a health issue in the individual. These food proteins, especially gluten, have been directly linked to just about every illness known to mankind in one way, shape, or form. Although I believe that cow milk proteins (e.g. alpha s-1 casein) will be shown to be just as harmful- if not more so- as gluten, the current research is focusing on celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and has linked gluten to countless medical problems. The every-expanding list can be found on sites like www.celiac.com. It is my belief, however, that the study of celiac disease is simply the gateway to the complete understanding of the roles that the other three foods play in the demise of our health, particularly dairy products.

Cow milk is distinguishable from the other three "horsemen" by the fact that it is the only animal product among the group of four and contains microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, and intracellular bacteria) that we are just now beginning to understand. I will be dealing with the L-form bacteria and mollicutes in an upcoming newsletter but feel free to visit that section of my site for a primer on that amazing topic. For now, let it be sufficient to say that there are many good reasons why dairy has been tied to medical issues in which gluten has not even been implicated. (For a great read, look up Don't Drink Your Milk by Dr. Frank Oski, the past Chief of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. It is available on Amazon.com.)

The GARD, which avoids all of the "big 4" foods in addition to select additives and other food groups, helps by improving conditions in a number of different areas. First of all, these are the foods known to cause damage to the finger-like projections that line our intestinal tract called villi. These villi are crucial for the normal absorption of our essential nutrients including calcium, iron, iodine, B complex, C, trace minerals (e.g. magnesium, zinc, manganese, boron, copper), sugars, fats and proteins. The interesting thing to see is how the three segments of the small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum) absorb different nutrients, with the ileum being a back-up for the others. However, we are now doing significant harm to that ileum through other means. I will be posting a paper on the Website in the near future that covers this particular aspect of our health's decline.

The elimination of the "big 4" foods can provide rapid recovery from numerous ailments and in a short period of time. This process is helped by the fact that these foods also contain substances that worsen symptoms and create problems of their own. These foods are all rich in proteins (glycoproteins, lectins) that stimulate allergic and more serious immune reactions while some also contain high levels of neurostimulating amino acids (glutamate and aspartate), depressants (casomorphins and gliadomorphins) and estrogens. So, it is easy to see how the elimination of these foods alone could improve one's health as it did in my case.

A step-by-step summary style paper that covers the high points of the GARD can be found here (The GARD Made Simple). Once we fully grasp the implications of the damage done to our small intestine and the resultant malnutrition, it should be clear why I keep saying "All roads lead to Rome", with our small intestine being that great city. For millennia, the Chinese have referred to the liver as the center of our medical universe. They are only off by a few inches. Although the liver does perform a phenomenal number of crucial functions, it is totally dependent upon the nutrients derived from the intestinal tract.

Once we damage the gut, particularly the small intestine, we open "Pandora's Box" and unleash the plagues upon mankind and his animals. We like to point the finger at viruses and bacteria as the culprits in disease but I have come to understand that they are simply adapting to the unnatural and undesirable conditions we are creating in our bodies and environments. If we stop insulting them- and the places they call home- and provide our body and immune systems with what they need to stay healthy, we can accomplish amazing things in our health.

I hope this helps,

John

John B. Symes, DVM (aka "Dogtor J")