What Is Applied Kinesiology?

Applied Kinesiology is a non-invasive system that evaluates structural, biochemical, emotional/mental and neurological aspects of health by using muscle testing, postural analysis, body language and gait analysis alongside conventional diagnostic methods. Central to the A.K. approach is the Triad of Health.

The treatment modalities used are very gentle cranio-sacral manipulation, gentle spinal manipulation, nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, specific exersises,muscle work and dietary advice.

What Conditions Can Applied Kinesiology Help With?

Some of the ailments/conditions we see include:

In Children

Learning Disorders.
Hyperactivity.

Asthma.

Psoriasis/Eczema.

Food Intolerances.
Low apgar score.
Birth trauma.
Repeated colds/sore throats.
ADHD.

In General

Osteo-Arthritis/Rheumatoid-Arthritis.

M.S.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/M.E.

Crohns/Colitis.  

PMS/Hormonal Imbalances.

Food Intolerances.

Sport Injuries.

Headache/Migraines.
Low back pain/sciatica.


If you would like more information please feel free to leave a question in the comments, or contact me by email (starfieldsholistichealth@gmail.com).

Sports Nutrition Part Two: A Step By Step Diet For Training And Competition

In part one of this series of posts on sports nutrition, "A Holistic Diet For Optimum Health And Performance", I talked about some of the 'super foods' that are a 'must' for sports people. I also touched on the need for sports people to ensure that they have sufficient fat in their diet and explained the fundamentals of 'food combining', which ensures optimum digestion of proteins and carbohydrates by eating them separately from each other.

In this post I'm going to talk about the diet I recommend for sports people in more detail, as well as give a step by step guide on how best to nourish yourself for optimum performance and recovery, before, during and after an intense exercise session such as hard training or a competition. 'Food Combining' is fundamental to this approach so you may wish to visit my first sports nutrition post if this is unfamiliar to you.

THE DIET

The diet I recommend for sports people is based on the consumption of nutrient rich, organic foods, eaten in appropriate combinations for optimum digestion and utilisation (according to the principles of food combining).

Essentially you're eating two carb meals to one protein meal a day. At each meal you can eat as much as you like.

When you first start this diet you will feel hungry at times but that will pass.

Also, you will lose upto 5lbs in weight... this is a healthy weight loss as it is the 'bad' fat stores that surround the organs that the body shifts.

Within 5 days you will notice a healthy change. Usually the first thing everybody notices is that their thinking is clearer, they feel less bloated and in general have more energy and a sense of overall well being.

A change of diet is not always easy at first but as you get more comfortable with this new approach it will become automatic thinking to choose protein meals and carb meals and you will enjoy the benefits.

BREAKFAST

On arising drink a glass of water followed by your blended juice.

One hour later breakfast would be a carb meal but no fruit juice, for example:

                      
                      pancakes with  and honey/maple syrup.

                      porridge with  and honey

                      muesli with a little goats milk (goats milk is far easier to digest than dairy)

                      toast and honey

                      cornbread with honey

Breakfast would be 3 hours before the next session.

If you train on arising (a habit I would seriously discourage - remember, first and foremost you are a human being and pre-dawn training goes against the natural bio-rhythms of the body), then a small snack of a handful of grapes or a couple of small squares of spelt/cornbread with honey with some water.

LUNCH

Lunch, if it was 3 hours before the next session/match, would be eggs - poached or boiled - eggs cooked exposed to air (as with an omelette or fried eggs) are oxidised and loose a lot of their nutritional value. Get used to eggs they are a marvelous source of tri-glycerides-a healthy fat. They are also easily digested well within the 3 hours before a match/session.

Lunch could also be avocado or hummous salad with rice/bread.

DINNER

This is probably post match/intensive session so see below 'after the competition'.

On rest days you can swap around your meals... I have found that a carb breakfast, protein lunch then carb dinner works well. Even on a rest day you can take your protein drink supplement 1/2 hour prior to your evening meal.

Optimum Nutrition For High Intensity Training/ Competition

Let me take you through this step by step.

BEFORE

Sometimes you can feel hungry before a session - at these times I suggest some light toast/bread with honey which will be digested quickly so food is not lying in the digestive tract fermenting/putrifying while you're running around.

No heavy proteins before a heavytraining session or competition. (Protein meals come AFTER a vigorous workout)

DURING

Your body can manage the first hour well without any water/juice.

Moving into the next hour, sips of water alongside sips of juice (1/3rd pressed apple juice with 2/3rds water or 1/3rd grape juice with 2/3rds water). NOT orange juice.

You may add a teaspoonful of Manuka honey and a small pinch of salt if the session is reaching the 2 hour mark.

NEVER drink off the shelf fizzy drinks or 're-hydration' drinks as they are full of 'E' numbers, glucose, aspartamate etc... in other words, junk.

If you are a tennis player/cyclist/all day tournament you will need to eat some solid foods.

DO NOT eat bananas, they are too high in potassium.

DO NOT eat these off the shelf sports bars.They are a mixture of carbs and proteins and refined sugars/glucose. Too much for the digestive system to manage while the body and mind are in 'competing' mode.

You might prepare small squares of spelt bread with honey before hand (if you are gluten intolerant then cornbread is a good alternative).

AFTER

You've just had a high end training session/match/meet/game, you want your body to recover to its maximium potential. You've just put a huge ammont of effort and dedication into your session and now is the time to maximize that commitment.

Immediately After Your Intense Exercise

 

When you finish your competition then WATER...WATER..WATER.. Don't gulp this down but drink it steadily for 30 minutes while you warm down.

When you have been exercising, most of your blood is in your muscle tissue, skin (heat loss) and in your brain. Your cardiovascular/hormonal (adrenals) systems need time to settledown and move gently into the recovery phase (nor-adrenaline), so don't go eating a load of food straight away.

1/2 An Hour To An Hour After Intense Exercise

Over the next 30 minutes or so you can drink 2/3rds water 1/3rd pressed apple or grape juice with a pinch of salt or 1/2 capsule of magnesium citrate. 

NONE of these fizzy drinks that are full of E-numbers and additives, preservatives glucose/dextrose... Honour your body!!

1 Hour After Intense Exercise

By this time you've warmed down, showered and are feeling more relaxed as the recovery hormone nor-adrenaline kicks in.

When you feel ready, around now is the time to have a quality protein drink mixed with  pressed apple or grape juice. The protein drink needs to be brown rice proteins and natural flavours. Thats all!!! No other ingredients like digestive enzymes, additives, aspartamate or creatine... the list goes on and its quite shocking what the mainstream manufacturers put in, never mind the intensive marketing strategies to get you to buy their product.

If you can tolerate dairy then there are some products that contain whey and that's fine.

At this stage your body is hydrating and getting healthy fruit sugars and the appropriate amino acids to replenish and repair itself.

If you take nutritional supplements now is the time, or you can take them with your meal. (Sports nutrition is a vast subject, so I shall do another post about it. It also needs to be taylor made to your unique needs and sport which is something I do with my clients).

As a general rule I'm uncomfortable with creatine as everyone I've tested reacts in a negative way to it. 

Juice in your juicer    2 celery sticks
                                  2 apples
                                  2 medium carrots
                                  2 oranges
                                  fresh ginger ( about the size of a golf ball)
                                  1/2 teaspoon of Turmuric.

1 - 1/2 Hours After Intense Exercise

Now is the time to have a PROTEIN meal. I know it goes against commonly held beliefs that you need carbs but in the short term there is enough sugars in your fruit drink, soup, veggie drink and vegetables. Its now 1 to 1 1/2 to 2 hours after your competition. You know your body best so when to start eating solid foods is up to you but certainly not before an hour after you finished competing. For me personally its nearer the 1 1/2 hour mark.

Soups are great at this time but no bread with it. 

Any one meat you like with as much of the veggies of your choice.

If you wanted you could have a glass of wine occasionally.

You could also have some goats cheese with an apple or pear.

Or mixed fruit

2-3 Hours After Intense Exercise

Now is the time to rest and recover, to allow the food to digest and the body to assimilate all the vital nutrition. Develop the skill of 'cat napping' to aid recovery and to release human growth hormone.

The key to full repair and regeneration of the musculo-skeletal system is to maximise your protein digestion in the stomach to long and short chain amino acids - then they will go to make up EVERY enzyme system in the body and to make new muscle tissue/ligament tissue/joint/tendon/vertebral disc tissue.

The sugars in the fruit juice and vegatables will help restore carb stores short term but the bulk of this will be replenished by your carb meal.

3 1/2 Hours After your protein meal.

Three and half hours later you can have a carb meal, for example:

                    
                    soup with garlic bread 

                    wholegrain spelt pasta with a veggie sauce

                    potatoes with bean stew

                    veggie curry with rice 

Pudding could be:

                             carrot cake

                             polenta cake

                             cornbread with honey

                             pancakes etc.

You can eat as much as you like as your body is now at  maximium rate of re-building muscle/liver glycogen and fat stores. Keep to natural sugars from grains and fruit as much as possible and keep away from white refined sugar.

A small beer occasionally goes with a carb meal (not before a competition though, alcohol takes 18 hours to leave the body).

1 Day After Intense Exercise

On arising the day after drink a glass of water followed by your blended juice. Breakfast would be a carb meal but no fruit juice, for example:
                      
                      pancakes and honey/maple syrup.

                      porridge with and honey

                      meusli with a little goats milk (goats milk is far easier to digest than dairy)

                      toast and honey

                      cornbread with honey

Manuka honey is best

Breakfast would be 3 hours before the next session.

If you have any questions about the protocol I've laid out here, please feel free to ask them, either in the comments here or by email (starfieldsholistichealth@gmail.com).

All the best in your sporting endeavours.

  

Sports Nutrition Part One: A Holistic Diet For Optimum Health And Performance

                                               

This diet is for all serious sports people whether at club level, national or international level.

Over a  32 year career I've worked with a number of sports men and women from all levels; club, national and international and over a number of sporting disciplines; Rugby, Football, Road Cycling, Golf, Squash, Judo, Karate, Athletics and Tennis.

My approach to the field of sports nutrition, sports diet, sporting performance and sports injuries is that first and foremost you are an unique individual human being living in the 21st century with all the commitments and responsebilities that goes with that. Then, of course, we focus in on your particular sporting endeavor and the unique circumstances around that.

This sports diet will give you all you need to promote quick recovery from an intensive 'session'/competition and also go a long way to enhance your sporting potential.

In other words it will ensure that vital proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and micro nutrients are readily available to the body.

As a sportsperson, your diet needs to give you that bit 'extra' to meet the extremes you push the body to. It also needs to help you maximise your sporting potential, increase your performance and promote a healthy recovery.

Food For Sports People

Here is a list of super foods that are a 'must' in every sports persons household:

All your food must be organic and fresh which does mean more home cooking - this is a great hobby to help relax the mind after the stress of a hard training session or competition (as is growning your own vegs in your own garden/allotment).

A must is to purchase a juicer and a recipe book to make a variety of fruit juices/veggy juices and a mixture of both. Have a glass per day. A good time to have your homemade juice is one hour before breakfast.

Also, get used to making vegetable soups with chicken stock... any kind of soup, variety is the spice of life. Soups are neutral and go with either a protien meal or carb meal (an important thing to be aware of when following the 'Hay Diet'/food combining - the next step towards ideal sports nutrition which i will come to shortly).

A Note About Fat

Your training/sports diet must allow for some body fat to be distibuted around the tummy so that when you are training hard your body will convert that fat store to energy (this is why I strongly recommend eggs). Fat is a far better source of energy than carbs and is far less demanding on the body than the high carb diet most athletes have.

Fats are also a very important component of the immune system (how many athletes get colds/flu/glandular fever/chills/run down?!). In my experience endurance athletes are lacking in fat stores to convert into energy while competing. So, ensure you have sufficient heathy fats/oils in your diet in the form of oily fish (plus omega 3 supplement {not omega 6}), avocado, nuts, olive oil and some saturated fat from good quality meat and goats cheese.

The Hay Diet/Food Combining For Sports People

Food Combining is a must for sports people to optimise their health and performance potential.

Here's why.

When you eat a piece of chicken (protein) the tongue 'scans' this and sends a neurological and chemical message telling the brain that this is a protein. The brain then produces a massive acid response in the stomach to aid the protein digestion and keep the meat in the stomach for 3 hours.

When you eat bowl of porridge (carb) a chemical message and neurological message goes to the brain to say 'this is a carb'. The brian then switches off acid production (the exact opposite to protein digestion!) You can imagine how confused the brain gets when you eat a chicken sandwich or beef curry or fish and chips or Sunday roast with potatoes!!

It doesn't make sense to mix carbs and proteins at the same meal. These are food groups that 'fight' each other.

To maximise the breakdown of the protiens in fish/chicken/meat into long and short chain amino acids so the body can re-use them to regenerate muscle/ligament tissue the meat/fish/chicken must be eaten apart from carbs!!!  this is so important in the sports athlete. When you use your musculo-skeletal system to excess, the tired/damaged muscle needs to be replaced as efficiently and effectively as possible which means proteins must be digested in the stomach without the presence of carbs.

Keep PROTEINS and CARBS apart!

The Nuts And Bolts Of Food Combining

Beyond the basic premise of keeping high protein and high carbohydrate foods apart in your diet there are greater complexities to 'food combining' (although just adhering to this one simple rule will make a huge difference to your well being!). The charts below outline the fundamentals and are ideal for printing off and sticking to the fridge door.

Non starchy vegetables go well with both protien and carbs. For example, roast chicken with a pile of roast veggies is fine but no roast potatoes.

Wholegrain rice with a vegetable curry is excellent but you cannot have a beef/chicken curry.

This part of the sports diet is VITAL!!! I cannot impress upon you sports folks enough how important it is to keep proteins and carbs apart. After a vigorous work out your body is desperate for long/short chain amino acids to make every enzyme in the body and to repair the musculo-skeletal system.

Here's another chart.... don't be put off by this, it gets easier...

There is a great deal of information out there on this subject and you may wish to do your own further research. Like any new approach, it can take a while to get your head around but before long it will be second nature.

As every human being is unique the same goes for the athlete and their individual approach to their discipline. This diet is HEALTHY, it is an optimium diet to maximise your recovery and give you the maximum opportunity to compete at your highest level.

Good luck in your endevours and every success.


* Part two of this series of posts for sports people includes a step by step guide to nutrition for optimum performance during and recovery after a high intensity training session or competition.

Hypochloridria - Low Hydrochloric Acid In The stomach

Hypochloridria - a fancy term, yet easy to explain. It literally means not enough hydrochloric acid in the stomach. In other words your stomach is not producing enough hydrochloric acid (Hcl) to digest food. This is contrary to a common held belief that we have too much stomach acids.

This health issue has implications in a number of conditions including polymyalgia, osteo arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic muscle aches and pains, lower back pains, psoriasis and eczema, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, digestive disturbance and pre-senile dementia.

Causes Of Hypochloridria

The causes of this condition are:

1) Zinc deficiency. The acid forming cells (parietal cells) in the lining of your stomach are very zinc dependent. So, in the case of zinc deficiency (which is very common), the number of parietal cells in the lining of the stomach will be reduced, leading to less acid released into the stomach for digestion.

2) Poor dietary habits over many years leading to an overload on the digestion system and then a 'fatiguing' of these parietal cells.

3) Wrong food combinations i.e. eating proteins with starches at the same meal.

4) Emotional stress.This leads to poor circulation in the abdominal organs due to the need to have the muscle system oxygenated in readiness for flight or fight response. The chronic poor circulation to the stomach leads to 'atrophy' of these parietal cells.

5) Over use of antacids (e.g. Gaviscon). A common held belief is that we have too much stomach acid. This is not the case in the vast majority of 'heart burn' sufferers. Usually 'heartburn' or reflux is due to the stomach acids escaping out of the stomach and into the lower end of the oesophagus.The oesophageal lining is not protected from these stomach acids hence it 'burns' the lining. The proper management of this condition is to correct the hypotonic (weak) oesophageal sphincter (round muscle) so the stomach contents will remain in the stomach and not regurgitate through the weakened sphincter. There would be no need to neutralise the Hcl digestive acids. This is a classic example of a mis-diagnosed ailment and its treatment leading to a new dis-ease/condition - hypochloridria. Also a good example of over the counter medicines being over used.

How Hypochloridria Lies At The Root Of Many Health Problems

So, what is the outcome of hypochloridria on the body. This condition is a good example of a 'hidden' problem insidiously worsening over a number of years and contributing to a whole host of bodily disfuctions and distress, and it often goes undiagnosed!!

Here's how. And this is very, very important as hypochloridria is at the root of a whole host of illnesses and is very rarely  diagnosed given its prevalence in the general population. 

When you eat a piece of meat e.g. chicken, the tongue tastes and scans this and sends the information via the nervous system to the brain.The message is "this is protein" the brain then instructs the parietal cells in the stomach to release copious amounts of Hcl and another type of cell - 'chief cells' to release pepsin. They both then digest this protein for approximately 3 1/2 hours into long and short chain amino acids. The stomach then moves it onto the small intestine where it is met by a huge bicarbonate (alkaline) response.These long and short chain amino acids (building blocks) are then absorbed across the wall of the small intestine into the blood stream.They are then carried in the blood stream to wherever the body needs these building blocks.

And here the most important bit.  THESE AMINO ACIDS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ALL ENZYME FUNCTIONS IN THE BODY!!! AND THE PROTEINS THAT MAKE UP OUR MUSCLES, JOINT SURFACES,TENDONS, LIGAMENTS AND SKIN TISSUE!!!

Can you see where I'm going with this... poor protein digestion due to a lack of Hcl digestive enzymes leading to amino acids that are too large to cross the cell wall of the small intestine means a deficiency in healthy long and short chain amino acids. The result is the body has a limited use of these amino acids to rebuild its muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint surfaces, skin tissue and every enzyme in the body!!

So, hypochloridria leads to polymyalgia, osteo arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic muscle aches and pains, lower back pains and psoriasis and eczema.

It is implicated in chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, any form of digestive disturbance. Even if the immune system is compromised, hypochloridria plays its part.

With anyone who has long standing chronic health problems I would look to Hcl deficiency as a major but 'hidden' health problem. I've yet to see anyone with pre-senile dementia who does not have chronic and severe hypochloridria (also, these folks have a severe zinc deficiency!! see the tie in?).

Treatment Of Hypochloridria 

To help these folks with hypochloridria return to good health its very important that they are given a digestive enzyme supplement with Hcl and Pepsin in it. Also, a good quality zinc preparation, usually 2 or 3 types of zinc preparations are needed.

They must go onto the food combining diet/'Hay diet' to maximise their digestion of proteins and not have it interfered with by taking carbohydrates at the same meal.THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!

There is usually a noticeable improvement very quickly but bear in mind we will then have to look at the consequences of long term Hcl/zinc deficiency, however, this is usually easy to do.