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Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.

How You Can Tell That Your Body Is Inflamed? The Fleckenstein Finger Diagnosis (FFD):

Inflammation lies at the bottom of chronic disease - diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, some forms of depression and anxiety, heart disease, stroke, COPD (chronic bronchitis), osteoporosis, certain cancers, chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s and other dementias, allergies, asthma, eczema and other skin diseases, heartburn, gastritis – and so many more. Yes, often you would not get these diseases if you didn’t have the right (or wrong) genes. But let’s face it: Most of us carry the genes for those diseases. All we need is a bad lifestyle to trigger chronic ailments. All of which make your life miserable. Of course, the main reason for the development of chronic diseases is that we are reaching older age than we used to – we have more time to hatch illness. But it is not that old age automatically renders you invalid and decrepit. One can have a healthy old age! But it takes some luck, and some effort. So what are the habits that trigger chronic inflammation and chronic diseases? The usual – and well-known - culprits: Inappropriate diet, too little movement (or too much!), environmental pollution of water, air and soil, psychological stress, unhappy relationships, unfulfilling jobs, drugs (medical and recreational), deficient water intake, unnecessary drugs, overweight and obesity, vitamin D deficiency, unnecessary antibiotics that kill the natural microbiome in our guts and on our skin. Another list that could go on and on. How do you tell that inflammation is damaging your body? Well, if you already have a chronic disease - that is the proof of the pudding. But If you are at the stage before a doctor runs some tests and finally makes the diagnosis – if you are in the pre-stages of disease – you might inspect your fingers for the telltale signs of inflammation: a red halo around the root of the nail, at the area of the nail bed. That halo can be thin and faint, and it can be thick and swollen. In some patients, the redness goes up half their digits, or higher. It is an early sign of inflammation, and one doctors usually don’t know about. In fact, I didn’t learn this in medical school – I observed it in my patients. The beauty of it? If you clean up your act, the halos get smaller and paler – you see within a few days that you are on the way to improvement. Especially if you leave out some offending allergenic food – the most common guilty parties here are dairy, gluten, nuts, sugar. Why is it that your fingertips can tell me the state of your health, the degree of inflammation? Traditional Chinese Medicine uses the tongue to tell about illness and well-being. My favorite European teacher Sebastian Kneipp used to base his diagnoses and prognoses on the shape and color of the earlobes; he must have come to it by simple observation, just as I did. The tongue, the earlobes, the fingertips – why those? Mainly because they are easily visible. For sure, if your body is riddled with inflammation, you will have signs of it in nearly all your inner organs. But the inner organs are hidden from direct inspection. For evaluating the tongue, I’d have to ask the patient to open her mouth. Earlobes and fingers are there for the looking. – Your fingers and nails can tell the doctor much more about your health (or un-health). But the FFD is easy for lay people. Let me tell you right away that I don’t yet know if only food allergies can trigger the redness of the fingers, or if other toxins or pathology processes do it too. I would think so. But there has been no study yet, just quiet observation on my patients. What I like about the Fleckenstein Finger Diagnosis (FFD): It is a do-it-yourself tool. You don’t need me to tell you something is wrong. You just need to look down on your fingertips. And if you see a reddish halo: Get up from your chair, and do something for your health: Go for a walk, and clean out your pantry! Read More 
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Celebrate!

Today we celebrate our summer party – a little early this year. Roses and irises honor us by opening this morning for the first time - the garden could not be lovelier! For a day like this, I want to give you my favorite piece of health advice: On a day like this, go out and celebrate with gusto, eat all the wrong foods – don’t sit around at the party and be on a diet! This, of course, does not apply if you have food allergies and intolerances. Then you have to stick to your diet, needless to say. But for all the others of us who just want to get to better health or lose a few pounds – which is commendable! - don’t do it today: Go out and have a good time! Because, what really counts in the long run, is what you keep in your fridge and in your pantry – not what you eat occasionally when you are with friends - unless you are a professional party-goer, like politicians for instance! If you are, this is a little trick: Don not eat lunch on days when you expect a big dinner. Just skip lunch – you won’t starve. But you will prevent that you look like so many politicians: over-stuffed. For everybody else: Enjoy the feast! But it would not hurt if you would go through your fridge, freezer and pantry right now and throw out everything that shouldn't be in there: TV dinners, sweets (except for dark chocolate without milk), chips, “nutritional bars, dairy (cheese, yogurt, milk), processed meats (bacon!), instant soups – you probably find more what should not be in there. No regrets, just throw it out! Don 't give it away because it is not healthy for the next person either. That way you can go to your summer fest and enjoy it – knowing that once you will be back home, only healthy foods will await you. P.S. If you cheat, observe how you feel afterward, and the next morning. Do you feel great? Lousy? Overhung? Bloated? Achy? Write it down so that you remember why you wanted to live healthier in the first place! Read More 
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