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Food Sensitivity Testing- Your Next Step in Healing PCOS? [Podcast]

 
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PCOS Podcast - Food Sensitivity - Mikulis-58“Food is medicine, and specific foods are medicine for specific people.” – Dr. Margrit Mikulis

As you might expect, I am very careful about the foods I choose. I am living proof that food is medicine. Eliminating inflammatory foods like gluten and dairy made all the difference in healing my PCOS. Inflammation is at the root of many of our PCOS symptoms, and eliminating common irritants can, in some cases, yield almost immediate relief. This summer, I took a food sensitivity test that examined my reaction to 132 foods. The results were surprising, and when I acted upon them, I felt even better! My naturopath, Dr. Margrit Mikulis, understands the link between PCOS, inflammation and diet. Listen as she explains:

  • How food sensitivities increase inflammation in women with PCOS
  • The difference between food sensitivity testing and food allergy testing
  • The correlation between cardiovascular health, gut health and inflammation
  • The difference between food allergies, food sensitivities and food intolerances
  • How to get tested for food sensitivity
http://pcosdiva.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Mikulis-58.mp3

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A full transcript follows.

Dr. Margrit Mikulis is the owner of Living Natural Inc., which is an established center for natural healthcare and Family Medical Practice in Nashua New Hampshire. She is a Naturopathic Doctor and an Ayurvedic Practitioner and has been in practice for over a decade.
For seven years she has served as a clinical faculty member at the Kripalu Institute for the Kripalu School of Ayurveda, in Lenox Mass.
Dr. Mikulis is known and loved for her dynamic integrative approach to healthcare.She utilizes naturopathy, ayurveda, classical homeopathy and the European traditions of anthroposophical medicine, supporting the health needs of families throughout the USA. She has treated an array of diseases and maintains specialties within the fields of vector borne illness, infectious and autoimmune disease, cancer, food and environmental allergies, and nutritional deficiencies.
She currently serves as the corporate Secretary and is on the Board of Directors of The National Ayurvedic Medical Association. For several years Dr. Mikulis has been a leader in the field of Ayurvedic medicine in the United States dedicating her time to the forward movement and preservation of this ancient healing medical system. Her hope is to help others learn about this individualistic approach to health as she believes that Ayurveda is the key to promoting optimal wellness. She teaches her clients that at the heart of Ayurveda is a foundational understanding that eating pure food and prioritizing your digestive health are the most important components, if you want to live a healthy life.
Because of this she has developed and will soon be launching her Food First Project which is a program that will teach people how to simplify their approach to food and give them an opportunity to do a very sensitive and specific test. Her innovate approach allows her clients to make radical, positive and permanent changes in their health, and she hopes the Food First Project will become an oasis for anyone who suffers from not knowing how or what to eat.
Dr. Mikulis can be reached at
22 Concord Street
Nashua New Hampshire
6035940002,
Full Transcript:

Amy Medling: Awesome. Hello and welcome to the PCOS Diva Podcast. My name is Amy Medling. I’m a certified health coach and the founder of PCOS Diva. My mission is to help women with PCOS find the tools and knowledge they need to take control of their PCOS, so they can regain their fertility, femininity, health, and happiness. Today I have the special privilege of introducing you to my Naturopath doctor, Dr. Margrit Mikulis. She is the owner of Living Natural Inc, which is an established center for natural healthcare and family medical practice in Nashua, New Hampshire. She’s a Naturopathic doctor and an Ayurvedic practitioner, and she has been in practice for over a decade.

Welcome, very warm welcome to the PCOS Diva Podcast, Dr. Mikulis.

Dr. Mikulis: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Amy. I’m really looking forward to talking with you today.

Amy Medling: I wanted Dr. Margrit to talk to us about PCOS and food sensitivities, and how that can really sort of stir up the flames of inflammation in women with PCOS. I know if you’ve been following me you know that I really advocate a gluten free, processed soy free and low dairy, dairy free diet. Those are all common food sensitivities I think for women with PCOS. We’re really just scratching the surface on those food sensitivities. That’s why I wanted Dr. Margrit to sort of speak to food sensitivities and fool allergy testing, which my husband and I just did her awesome food allergy test. I’ll tell you a little bit about how that has been life changing for us. Why don’t we just start, Dr. Margrit, with how you think food plays a role in helping us manage our PCOS symptoms.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Amy. First of all I want to say that I’m so grateful to be here and to be talking to your audience. Food sensitivities as a whole effect over 100,000,000 people worldwide. I really appreciate the work that you’re doing for the folks that are suffering with PCOS. I love your perspective in regards to thinking about food as medicine. When we talk a little bit more about the testing that I do, I’ll get into a little bit more of the guts of why specific testing in my opinion is really important, which really sort of interplays with some of the other suggestions that you obviously make.

You kind of hit on something right off the bat here in understanding that yes we know with PCOS that there’s some commonalities with having sensitivities or frank allergies to certain foods, but scratching the surface is just the basic. I would say yes with PCOS and yes with just food sensitivities in general, you can really respond to anything. We might say folks with PCOS are suffering from having a sensitivity to gluten or maybe sugar, maybe diary, but in the realm of really understanding all the food categories and potential cross reactions, the truth of the matter is there can be other culprits.

We’ve drawn some really good correlations with understanding specifics about those foods that we know can generally cause more inflammation in the body, but really every person is an individual. That’s why not every single PCOS client that you have looks the same. Food is medicine like you say on your website, and it’s really true. Food is medicine, and specific foods are medicine for specific people. Where I find food playing a role as far as having some sort of a pathology or having a syndrome like PCOS, you truthfully have to understand what’s going on with the person and what do they look like, what is their constitution so that you can really understand which foods are best for them.

You can do that from the standpoint of looking at a disease, let’s say. Somebody has insulin resistance. We’ll probably say, “Okay, well we don’t want to consume the foods that create more insulin resistance.” We do know what some of those foods are, but we don’t know what all of those foods are in reference to a specific individual. Does that answer your question?

Amy Medling: Yeah, and it’s funny because I think that you really hit the nail in the head, that there is really no one size fits all approach, that we’re all bio-individuals and kind of what food might make me thrive may make another woman with PCOS feel much more inflamed. I think that we have to sort of approach food not looking at it that it’s this across the board hard and fast rule.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely. I think you and I can have a big chuckle and a long conversation about wheat and gluten. We know that those are really common foods, but maybe perhaps not every single person that is suffering with PCOS is going to necessarily have an issue with wheat and gluten. This is why it’s … In the realm of understanding why somebody has a condition, what are the components? We’re really trying to look at what’s the underlying cause. It’s not enough to know that the person has an issue with gluten. It’s usually, and I think you’ll agree with this and I bet a lot of the folks in your audience will say the same thing, it’s not always going to be very clear as to, “Okay, this person is going to have this problem across the board because they have this, this and this going on. They have hypothyroid, they have insulin resistance, they have issues with androgens.” It’s not always going to be that clear. If we can take step back and really look at the individual and try to figure out what the cause is, we’re going to get closer and in some cases simplify treatment.

If a person that really could consume gluten … Now a lot of people probably with PCOS, and we can get into the reasons why, I think, beyond what we know about gluten sensitivities or frank celiac disease, a lot of the reason why people have issues with gluten is because gluten is an inflammatory food. Right? Sugar is inflammatory. When we start to connect the dots, we can really see, “Wow, okay well this is inflammatory and this is inflammatory” and the person is dealing with inflammation. Let’s say they don’t have a sensitivity. You’re going to generally get, you can kind of hit it in lots of ways by decreasing inflammation, which is probably what a lot of the folks that you’ve worked with have had some good experiences just decreasing inflammation.

Where you can take it to the next level is by looking at specifically what is the cause of the inflammation. If it’s not just gluten, if it’s something else, we want to figure out what that is. That can be anything. That could be food. It could be some sort of a toxic related scenario. There could be some sort of impact that the person is dealing with. Then of course we get into some of the more esoteric components of the spiritual realm and all of these other things that might potentially be influencing it. There’s many things, I think, at the end of the day. I think the more we can familiarize ourselves with what the components are and what are the cause, then we’ll be able to be in a better position to get somebody back to optimal health and have success.

Amy Medling: Yeah, and I think that once you get to that feeling good feeling, and that’s what I help women do with the Jumpstart program, which we’re kind of eliminating those major inflammatory foods and adding in lots of anti-inflammatory foods. You get to a point where you feel really good and you kind of understand the concept of nothing tastes as good as feeling good feels.

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah.

Amy Medling: Then my Sparkle program, we take that even a step further where it’s a 14 day detoxification program. You’re really cutting out even more foods because you’re having two of the Sparkle shakes a day and then the rest of your food comes from clean animal protein or fruits and vegetables and really not a lot of grains. You’re taking that even further. Then you get to the point after the Sparkle and you’re like, “Wow, I feel really good. Now I’m kind of afraid of eating regularly again. I don’t want to lose that good feeling. I’m not really sure what I should be eliminating from my diet.” It ends up being kind of like an experiment. You might add corn back in and see how you feel with corn. You might add eggs back in for a couple days and see how you feel. You have a tool that kind of fast tracks all of that for us.

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah.

Amy Medling: I would love for you to tell us about it. I did your test that you’re going to talk about over the summer. It has had a huge impact in my life. I’m excited to tell everybody about it too.

Dr. Mikulis: It’s so great. I think your Jumpstart and your Sparkle programs are so amazing. It’s like to get somebody to that level to then cross over to have, it’s like it’s coming out of a cave. All the sudden the light is starting to shine and you’re starting to feel better and get back to yourself. Certainly for many women this is just really the icing on the cake in so many ways, because they haven’t been feeling good. They’ve been struggling possibly with weight gain and other problems that are related, hyper functioning endocrine system and other things that are related to their syndrome and all of the sudden they’ve made some changes that they have had a direct impact on. They’re doing the work ultimately, so they’ve made this direct impact in their life and they’re feeling better. Then they get to that place where it’s like, “Okay, I am a little bit tentative about bringing some foods back in.”

What I can say about that is that this next level … We say, okay the Sparkle program. Then what’s the other option for you to get closer and to be able to take the … Your foundational programs, the Jumpstart and the Sparkle program, as far as I’m concerned those are really amazing foundational programs that start people off in the right foot and send them soaring in the direction towards health. If we could just add another component to that, in my opinion, which is to be able to look at what are the specific foods that could be also aggravating you. When we have inflammation and we know that there’s certain foods that are going to cause inflammation, inflammation plus inflammation equals inflammation. If there’s a food that’s there, like I said before, that we don’t know that’s necessarily also contributing, we’re still going to be targeting the immune system and the endocrine system in a negative way.

What the food inflammation test does is it really looks closely in a very specific and sensitive way to 132 foods so that you can actually get closer to understanding. I can promise you, there’s always a surprise. I don’t have your test results in front of me, and I don’t know if you want to get into any of this detail, but usually with most of my clients there’s some sort of surprise event from doing their food sensitivity testing. They come out of it saying, “Wow, I had no idea that this was also part of the picture. I’m consuming those foods. By the way, this is a really good food.” This is what I hear a lot of, Amy. “This is a really good food. I had no idea that it could be causing me any problems.”

Lo and behold, they’re having such a strong immune response to that particular food, and maybe it’s not even within the category of what we know is commonly known inflammatory foods, but how that person is responding is in an inflammatory way. We can argue that even with taking out some of the more inflammatory foods that are notorious for causing additional inflammation, we can argue that that individual who is eating the foods that they’re sensitive to, they’re inspiring more inflammation because of the fact that they’re sensitive.

The truth of the matter is it gives you another basis for saying, “Okay, well if you knew that corn was on your list and you are having a strong reaction to corn, you wouldn’t bring it back into your diet after the Sparkle program. In fact, you would want to take it out even longer so that you would have another opportunity to really improve gut permeability and to take time to calm down the immune system.” Really, when we talk about inflammation it’s just a dance. Inflammation is just a dance between you and your immune system. Okay? Every time you have a food that’s playing a role in that dance, it’s the orchestration to that dance, it’s the collective effects.

This is why when we look at food being important, exercise is important, making sure that you’re doing self-care, and within all of those aspects of treating a syndrome like PCOS just like looking at inflammation in a big picture and saying, “What are all the contributing factors”, we can actually make more progress. For me, in my clinical practice with all of my clients, I’m really looking to do sensitivity testing because I want them to get closer and to have more success with things like your foundational programs with Jumpstart and Sparkle, so that then they could have longer lasting and in many cases reverse the damage that’s done, which is what we’re aiming for.

Amy Medling: I love that visualization of the dance of inflammation. It kind of pushes you into that autoimmune place where you’re susceptible to more autoimmune issues. Women with PCOS are like Hashimoto’s and celiac and other autoimmune disorders. The question that I have is the food allergy panel that I did and my husband did, and I do want to share about my results, but how does that differ? It was just a pinprick on my finger where you just blotted a little bit of blood on a piece of paper, how does that differ from going to an allergist and having all of those pinpricks on your back? I know I’ve taken my kids to the allergist. This is a very different kind of test. Maybe you could just explain how …

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely, yeah. What your kids did is really looking for food allergies and a particular immune response, which is known as an IgE type one hyper-sensitivity. That’s not the food sensitivity test that you did in my office where we did a finger stick and put your blood sample on blots and then we sent it to the lab. That’s what’s called an IgG delayed hypersensitivity. There’s a lot of information about the differences from an immune standpoint. What I can tell you is we really have a division here of food allergies, food sensitivities and food intolerances. Food allergies seem pretty clear. Usually in most cases I would say, and this is from my clinical practice. Now an allergist may have more information to add to this. There are people that are allergic type one hypersensitivity, and I often use the case of anaphylaxis as a really clear cut case, like peanut anaphylaxis.

What happens when that person comes in and sometimes if they really are allergic, there’s still levels of allergies. Not every person that has an allergy to peanuts has anaphylaxis. Somebody who does, they could come in a room and if peanuts were airborne they could have an anaphylaxis response, which airways could be shut off, they need intervention very quickly. That’s a very quick response. Okay? That happens very fast.

Where food sensitivities come in, and I like to look at this in a different way. From the standpoint of the immune system, there’s a lot happening there. Because so much is happening there it’s less of a quick response. Certain cells are talking to certain cells, and it’s typically within a 12 hour period where you’re going to see a response. Now that’s sort of interesting because I can say there’s definitely outliers. Our immune system is so dynamic. When I give time or response rates or anything, it’s really also based on the individual. I have patients that say, “If I consume gluten I won’t have a response for two days.” Then I have other patients who say, “I know really soon, like within a couple hours if I’ve had gluten because my fingers start to get inflamed or I get really thirsty or I wake up in the middle of the night.” 12 hours isn’t the magic number, but it’s a delayed response.

The difference between that and a type one hypersensitivity is really in many ways time. A food intolerance is a condition where the body reacts to food because there’s a lack of an enzyme and then damage to the gut lining from a disease or antibiotics, but it’s not necessarily that aspect. There can be a genetic component that predisposes the person to a food intolerance, but the reality is it’s not necessarily the same response that you would see in a delayed hypersensitivity or in a type one hypersensitivity, which is what we talked about in the very beginning of this conversation in regards to what your kids experienced when they went to the allergist. They had that skin test that was done, and then they were watching a response at the level of the skin. A type one hypersensitivity response, IgE mediated.

The interesting thing about that, I just want to make one other point, is yes people can be allergic IgE to many, many things. Often times it’s fairly clear. The person might eat something and they get in itchiness in their mouth or their throat or they develop hives or something like that. I typically see with IgG, so that’s the food sensitivity you did in my office, I typically see in those cases, and this is my theory, that over time as the person consumes foods that they’re sensitive to, that’s where the gut begins to break down. Our GI tract has the ability every time we consume food, our body is presented with food antigens and the body is saying, “Can I assimilate this or can I not assimilate it?” If the body can’t assimilate it it’s going to eventually bind and make these complexes that end up breaking down, if you are sensitive to the food they will end up over time breaking down the lining of the GI tract.

That’s when we begin to see immune responses at the level certainly of the GI tract no doubt, but then at the level of the systemic immune system. Now they’re beginning to really correlate that there’s some really clear understanding that food sensitivities can lead to bigger pathologies. There’s so many articles that are coming out right now that people are sending to me saying, “Oh, look at this work this doctor is doing.” There’s a pediatric doctor I think in California who has really drawn a correlation between Crohn’s and food sensitivities and doing specific diets to really decrease inflammation. I look at a food sensitivity as that slower insidious problem that doesn’t become a problem until it really becomes a problem. It’s wreaking havoc on your body until you start to become symptomatic.

Again, this all starts at the level of the digestive tract, specifically also for PCOS. In my opinion, when you look at the bigger problems as to why a person might be having, if it’s not a toxic related issue, ultimately in my opinion from the standpoint of PCOS, the truth of the matter is it starts with the GI tract and then things to askew from there. That’s a bigger topic of conversation. At the end of the day we can really look at food allergies as more of that type one hypersensitivity IgE mediated, food sensitivities type two and type three is delayed hypersensitivity and then food intolerance being enzyme deficiency, problems with food additives, damage to the gut lining from chemicals and toxins. I hope that answers your question. It seems a little bit confusing because we kind of use those terms loosely. The food test that we did is really, in my opinion, looking at how your body is responding from an inflammatory standpoint, IgG mediated.

Amy Medling: Yeah, and didn’t Hypocrites say all disease begins in the gut?

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah, and Hypocrites wasn’t the first to say that by the way. When you start reading the classical ancient text of Ayurveda, going back deep into that vedic knowledge, all of it comes back to the GI tract. I look forward to someday perhaps having a conversation about the bigger aha moments that Ayurveda really talks about as to why something like food would affect and cause a syndrome like PCOS.

Amy Medling: I cannot wait for that conversation. When we’ve talked about this, how much I love Ayurveda and how much balancing my dosha has really helped me manage my PCOS. We will have you on soon, Dr. Margrit to talk about Ayurveda and PCOS.

Dr. Mikulis: That’s great. I look forward to it.

Amy Medling: I also just wanted to direct listeners to posts and podcasts on my site. Dr. Felice Gersh has talked a lot about gut and PCOS and inflammation. They all tie together. I believe that learning your food sensitivities and getting to know them and start eliminating those foods can make a tremendous difference in your health. I’ve seen it in myself over the last six months since I’ve gotten my food allergy panel done by Dr. Margrit, and my husband as well. I have to tell you that I probably ate eggs two to three times a week, either for lunch or on the weekend for breakfast, and certainly in a lot of different paleo muffins and things that I was creating. I ate a lot of eggs. I was floored to find out that on a scale of 0 to 5, 5 being the highest level of intolerance that egg whites is basically up at the 5 line for me and egg yolks is about 4 1/2.

I have removed eggs from my diet and I can tell you that I’ve noticed more energy. I don’t feel so fatigued. I used to chalk that up to the grains, like in a muffin or something like that, but I really think it’s the eggs.

Dr. Mikulis: Wow, that’s amazing. How long have you had them out so far, just out of curiosity? We’re going to turn it real quick into a visit.

Amy Medling: Well let’s see. I did this in July, so I don’t know if it’s quite six months. July, August, September … Yeah it’s about six months. I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy through the holidays trying to find vegan substitutes for baked goods…

Dr. Mikulis: Oh yeah. You had egg yolk and egg white.

Amy Medling: Yeah, like four plus. Maybe you can just explain the different level of reactions and how the report sort of comes out.

Dr. Mikulis: Sure.

Amy Medling: I can pull up a picture of mine if people are interested.

Dr. Mikulis: I just happened to be in front of my computer, and I pulled your results up from my secured site. Yeah, you had egg yolk and egg white, which was a four plus reaction class. There’s typically five reaction class. There’s four plus, which is severe, three plus which is high, two plus which is moderate, one plus which is mild and then no reaction.

Some people are curious about, “Okay, well what do you mean she had egg yolk and egg white?” One of the cool things about this test is that it’s looking at yolk and it’s looking at white. Now in truth we can’t really separate the yolk and the white. Typically, some people get excited because they only have egg yolk. I have to give them the bad news that it’s really all egg, it’s just that we’re trying to look at the whole versus the part. Sometimes it’s actually really helpful for us to understand like in the case of wheat and gluten. If somebody is having a really strong response to gluten, well that’s really, really clear to me that gluten grains really need to be removed.

Egg yolk and egg white were in your four plus reaction class and you are having a severe response. I don’t think you and I ended up … I don’t know how much we discussed that link, but I typically tell people that anything in the four plus and the three plus reaction class, and frankly anything two plus, three plus and four plus, you have to really look at this is really causing a big problem in the GI tract. A lot of these tests, ultimately, what they’re really pointing to is that there is some sort of issue from a gut immunology standpoint where the inflammation and the permeability and the problems with you dealing with food antigens, it’s not a happy experience for your gut.

When I see these things, basically what I tell people is, “Look, we’re trying to find what the obstacle to cure is.” Once we see what that is in the food, we need to pull it out and we have to take a period of time away from it to one, decrease inflammation and two, calm down the immune system. Sometimes that takes longer in people than in other people, and then sometimes a two plus reaction class … It’s not like you have a four plus, you’re necessarily going to be on the floor keeled over, but sometimes you are, actually. It’s really based on the individual.

Often times people are like, “Well, you have these treatment guidelines, but why do I have to follow this if I don’t feel like I’m having that strong of a response?” Well if you’re not having that strong of a response do you want to wait until you are having that strong of a response, or do you kind of want to nip it in the bud and calm things down so that maybe perhaps you can bring the food back into rotation and have it from time to time without having a really big issue? That’s one scenario.

The other scenario is if you have a lot of pathology and a lot of inflammation. We’re talking to an audience who has PCOS already. PCOS, and I think probably you’ll agree with me, if we wanted to really just, “Okay, what’s one word that we could break down and say”, we could say PCOS is inflammation. Okay? If we have inflammation in the body already, because we have PCOS, we want to stop that. If you’re having a strong immune response and you’re eating foods that are causing more inflammation, you really want to stop that. Taking the food out for a specific period of time, it’s kind of like what you were saying with your Jumpstart and your Sparkle, it’s like, “Okay, well what next?” What next is we want to have a cure.

The body doesn’t cure overnight, as you know Amy, right, and as your listeners know. It takes time. All of the things that happen with PCOS, so the hypothyroid, the androgen issues, the acne, the obesity, the anovulation, menstrual irregularity, all of those things that are happening, one thing I think we can really all agree on is that it’s multisystem. It’s not just the reproductive system, right? The fat is involved, the endocrine system is involved. It becomes this multisystem problem that you need to address. If you’re not addressing it from the root cause of inflammation you’re not going to get there.

That’s why a lot of people that struggle don’t end up making the process they want to make because they think that there’s necessarily a time limit on it. What your site offers and what your programs offer is a way of life, to change so that you can actually get better and cross over. That’s really why I think food sensitivity testing is important, because it’s giving you an additional tool to say, “Okay, now I know. Now I know really a fuller picture of what could be causing a problem in my diet that can be contributing to the inflammatory process that I’m already dealing with.”

Amy Medling: Yeah, and I think that’s what I loved about it. For my husband he was dealing with atrial fibrillation and couldn’t really figure out what would trigger an episode for him. He had his food allergy panel done, found out that he was number four plus reactive for baker’s yeast and brewer’s yeast. Boy, that’s a tough one to be allergic to yeast, because it’s in like everything. Vinegars are difficult. Any kind of sauces.

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah, that is a really hard one.

Amy Medling: Yeah. It was interesting because if it kind of snuck in I felt like I was poisoning the poor guy. If somehow it snuck in, and I didn’t realize it, he would inevitably have another palpitation.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely.

Amy Medling: You know, another episode. It is, it’s that inflammation and that’s really what was causing the heart to kind of an electrical malfunction was inflammation. I think his …

Dr. Mikulis: Can I just interject? I’m so sorry. Go ahead.

Dr. Mikulis: I just wanted to say one quick thing when we were talking before about the differences between food allergies and food sensitivities and intolerances. The truth of the matter is with food sensitivities, they can affect any organ system. Typically, with food allergies, they’re usually limited to airways, skin and the GI tract, and then food intolerances, same thing, they can affect any organ system. The truth of the matter is that because of that, and this is probably one of the things that I’m sure I said to you and to your husband when we got his results back, I’ve seen every organ system effected.

I remember over in the winter time I was having a conversation with a cardiologist about another cardiac patient that I had that we did food sensitivity testing with. They had a really amazing resolution. One of the things that they’re really drawing a very strong correlation with cardiovascular health is this inflammation component. Again, it’s nothing different than what we’re talking about today with PCOS. With food sensitivities, because they can affect any organ, you have to really take them seriously. Again, it’s going back to it’s not just happening at the level of the GI tract. These food complexes are forming in the GI tract and then somehow they’re getting out into the systemic body.

Once that cascade of events starts happening, that’s when you start seeing problems in wreaking havoc in other aspects of the body that effect all the other systems or can effect all the other systems.

Amy Medling: Yeah. Anyone listening that is really looking to solve another piece of the PCOS puzzle and to have as Dr. Margrit said another tool, I would highly recommend this food allergy panel and work with Dr. Margrit. She will tell you how you can do that. I do want to just say, one of the surprises for me on my panel was pineapple. As a health coach I was like, “I’m going to have some pineapple after meals because of the bromelain and how it helps digestive enzyme.” I thought this is something that I’m doing good, just a couple pieces after meals, and it was something that I enjoyed. It was kind of like a little dessert, but little did I know that that was kind of adding to my inflammation.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely, I know. Again, that kind of goes back to what I was saying before about how some people think that “Yeah, well I’m eating this food because it’s good”, and it is good. Pineapple is not a bad food, it’s just that your immune system responds to it very differently than somebody else like me. I don’t have a sensitivity to pineapple. If we can get closer to understanding which foods and being … This is where individualized medicine really sort of becomes an art form. Right? It’s like all the sudden that person with PCOS who is getting success can take it to another level and really understand what are the other additional components that are really playing a role. I’m looking forward to maybe people getting more and more exposed to this.

Food sensitivities aren’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, it’s just there on the rise. There’s so many factors. That’s a whole other show in itself too, Amy. Ultimately I think if we can really dial it back and use food as medicine then we’re going to get better across the board. You’ve got to treat the gut. It’s foundational medicine, and then you’ll have success. There’s no doubt.

Amy Medling: Yeah. I mean getting to the root cause, and I think this is one way to get to that root cause.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely.

Amy Medling: Dr. Margrit, why don’t you tell us how we could reach out to you about the food allergies and maybe get one of these tests done for ourselves?

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely. As you know, Amy, we’re launching the Food First project. That information will hopefully be ready to access when you launch your Sparkle program. In the meantime if somebody does want to get in touch with me they can certainly call me and reach me at my office, 603-594-0002 or they could send an email at info@livingnaturalinc.com. That’s info@livingnaturalinc.com, the inc. is incorporated. If anyone in your audience is interested in doing any testing with me, if they mention the coupon code called “food diva“, we’ll give them 10% off of their test and be happy to serve your community.

Amy Medling: Oh, that’s fantastic. Thank you so much for that.

Dr. Mikulis: Oh, wonderful. Yes, definitely.

Amy Medling: Yeah, and thank you for joining us today and kind of getting this information out about this fabulous test and how it can really help women with PCOS kind of fine tune their own bodies and their care plan.

Dr. Mikulis: Well, thank you so much. I’m so impressed with your work. I’m really looking forward to doing some collaboration. I’m hopeful that all of your clients and audience can really find some great benefit through your programs and perhaps through something I offer down the road.

Amy Medling: Awesome. Yeah, I cannot wait for you to come back to talk about Ayurveda. For those listening, Dr. Margrit is an educator at Kripalu, which I still have not gotten there. It’s on my bucket list. One day I will.

Dr. Mikulis: Well hopefully one of these days I’ll be here with you.

Amy Medling: Okay, sounds good. Well that wraps up our podcast today. Thank you so much for joining us on the PCOS Diva Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. If you liked this episode, don’t forget to subscribe to PCOS Diva on iTunes or wherever else you might be listening to this show. If you have a minute please leave me a quick review on iTunes, because I’d really love to hear from you. Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter. Just enter your email at pcosdiva.com to get instant access, and make sure that you never miss out on a future podcast. This is Amy Medling, and I’m wishing you good health. I look forward to being with you again soon. Bye-bye.

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PCOS Podcast - Food Sensitivity - Mikulis-58“Food is medicine, and specific foods are medicine for specific people.” – Dr. Margrit Mikulis

As you might expect, I am very careful about the foods I choose. I am living proof that food is medicine. Eliminating inflammatory foods like gluten and dairy made all the difference in healing my PCOS. Inflammation is at the root of many of our PCOS symptoms, and eliminating common irritants can, in some cases, yield almost immediate relief. This summer, I took a food sensitivity test that examined my reaction to 132 foods. The results were surprising, and when I acted upon them, I felt even better! My naturopath, Dr. Margrit Mikulis, understands the link between PCOS, inflammation and diet. Listen as she explains:

  • How food sensitivities increase inflammation in women with PCOS
  • The difference between food sensitivity testing and food allergy testing
  • The correlation between cardiovascular health, gut health and inflammation
  • The difference between food allergies, food sensitivities and food intolerances
  • How to get tested for food sensitivity
http://pcosdiva.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Mikulis-58.mp3

All PCOS Diva podcasts are now itunes-button

A full transcript follows.

Dr. Margrit Mikulis is the owner of Living Natural Inc., which is an established center for natural healthcare and Family Medical Practice in Nashua New Hampshire. She is a Naturopathic Doctor and an Ayurvedic Practitioner and has been in practice for over a decade.
For seven years she has served as a clinical faculty member at the Kripalu Institute for the Kripalu School of Ayurveda, in Lenox Mass.
Dr. Mikulis is known and loved for her dynamic integrative approach to healthcare.She utilizes naturopathy, ayurveda, classical homeopathy and the European traditions of anthroposophical medicine, supporting the health needs of families throughout the USA. She has treated an array of diseases and maintains specialties within the fields of vector borne illness, infectious and autoimmune disease, cancer, food and environmental allergies, and nutritional deficiencies.
She currently serves as the corporate Secretary and is on the Board of Directors of The National Ayurvedic Medical Association. For several years Dr. Mikulis has been a leader in the field of Ayurvedic medicine in the United States dedicating her time to the forward movement and preservation of this ancient healing medical system. Her hope is to help others learn about this individualistic approach to health as she believes that Ayurveda is the key to promoting optimal wellness. She teaches her clients that at the heart of Ayurveda is a foundational understanding that eating pure food and prioritizing your digestive health are the most important components, if you want to live a healthy life.
Because of this she has developed and will soon be launching her Food First Project which is a program that will teach people how to simplify their approach to food and give them an opportunity to do a very sensitive and specific test. Her innovate approach allows her clients to make radical, positive and permanent changes in their health, and she hopes the Food First Project will become an oasis for anyone who suffers from not knowing how or what to eat.
Dr. Mikulis can be reached at
22 Concord Street
Nashua New Hampshire
6035940002,
Full Transcript:

Amy Medling: Awesome. Hello and welcome to the PCOS Diva Podcast. My name is Amy Medling. I’m a certified health coach and the founder of PCOS Diva. My mission is to help women with PCOS find the tools and knowledge they need to take control of their PCOS, so they can regain their fertility, femininity, health, and happiness. Today I have the special privilege of introducing you to my Naturopath doctor, Dr. Margrit Mikulis. She is the owner of Living Natural Inc, which is an established center for natural healthcare and family medical practice in Nashua, New Hampshire. She’s a Naturopathic doctor and an Ayurvedic practitioner, and she has been in practice for over a decade.

Welcome, very warm welcome to the PCOS Diva Podcast, Dr. Mikulis.

Dr. Mikulis: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Amy. I’m really looking forward to talking with you today.

Amy Medling: I wanted Dr. Margrit to talk to us about PCOS and food sensitivities, and how that can really sort of stir up the flames of inflammation in women with PCOS. I know if you’ve been following me you know that I really advocate a gluten free, processed soy free and low dairy, dairy free diet. Those are all common food sensitivities I think for women with PCOS. We’re really just scratching the surface on those food sensitivities. That’s why I wanted Dr. Margrit to sort of speak to food sensitivities and fool allergy testing, which my husband and I just did her awesome food allergy test. I’ll tell you a little bit about how that has been life changing for us. Why don’t we just start, Dr. Margrit, with how you think food plays a role in helping us manage our PCOS symptoms.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Amy. First of all I want to say that I’m so grateful to be here and to be talking to your audience. Food sensitivities as a whole effect over 100,000,000 people worldwide. I really appreciate the work that you’re doing for the folks that are suffering with PCOS. I love your perspective in regards to thinking about food as medicine. When we talk a little bit more about the testing that I do, I’ll get into a little bit more of the guts of why specific testing in my opinion is really important, which really sort of interplays with some of the other suggestions that you obviously make.

You kind of hit on something right off the bat here in understanding that yes we know with PCOS that there’s some commonalities with having sensitivities or frank allergies to certain foods, but scratching the surface is just the basic. I would say yes with PCOS and yes with just food sensitivities in general, you can really respond to anything. We might say folks with PCOS are suffering from having a sensitivity to gluten or maybe sugar, maybe diary, but in the realm of really understanding all the food categories and potential cross reactions, the truth of the matter is there can be other culprits.

We’ve drawn some really good correlations with understanding specifics about those foods that we know can generally cause more inflammation in the body, but really every person is an individual. That’s why not every single PCOS client that you have looks the same. Food is medicine like you say on your website, and it’s really true. Food is medicine, and specific foods are medicine for specific people. Where I find food playing a role as far as having some sort of a pathology or having a syndrome like PCOS, you truthfully have to understand what’s going on with the person and what do they look like, what is their constitution so that you can really understand which foods are best for them.

You can do that from the standpoint of looking at a disease, let’s say. Somebody has insulin resistance. We’ll probably say, “Okay, well we don’t want to consume the foods that create more insulin resistance.” We do know what some of those foods are, but we don’t know what all of those foods are in reference to a specific individual. Does that answer your question?

Amy Medling: Yeah, and it’s funny because I think that you really hit the nail in the head, that there is really no one size fits all approach, that we’re all bio-individuals and kind of what food might make me thrive may make another woman with PCOS feel much more inflamed. I think that we have to sort of approach food not looking at it that it’s this across the board hard and fast rule.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely. I think you and I can have a big chuckle and a long conversation about wheat and gluten. We know that those are really common foods, but maybe perhaps not every single person that is suffering with PCOS is going to necessarily have an issue with wheat and gluten. This is why it’s … In the realm of understanding why somebody has a condition, what are the components? We’re really trying to look at what’s the underlying cause. It’s not enough to know that the person has an issue with gluten. It’s usually, and I think you’ll agree with this and I bet a lot of the folks in your audience will say the same thing, it’s not always going to be very clear as to, “Okay, this person is going to have this problem across the board because they have this, this and this going on. They have hypothyroid, they have insulin resistance, they have issues with androgens.” It’s not always going to be that clear. If we can take step back and really look at the individual and try to figure out what the cause is, we’re going to get closer and in some cases simplify treatment.

If a person that really could consume gluten … Now a lot of people probably with PCOS, and we can get into the reasons why, I think, beyond what we know about gluten sensitivities or frank celiac disease, a lot of the reason why people have issues with gluten is because gluten is an inflammatory food. Right? Sugar is inflammatory. When we start to connect the dots, we can really see, “Wow, okay well this is inflammatory and this is inflammatory” and the person is dealing with inflammation. Let’s say they don’t have a sensitivity. You’re going to generally get, you can kind of hit it in lots of ways by decreasing inflammation, which is probably what a lot of the folks that you’ve worked with have had some good experiences just decreasing inflammation.

Where you can take it to the next level is by looking at specifically what is the cause of the inflammation. If it’s not just gluten, if it’s something else, we want to figure out what that is. That can be anything. That could be food. It could be some sort of a toxic related scenario. There could be some sort of impact that the person is dealing with. Then of course we get into some of the more esoteric components of the spiritual realm and all of these other things that might potentially be influencing it. There’s many things, I think, at the end of the day. I think the more we can familiarize ourselves with what the components are and what are the cause, then we’ll be able to be in a better position to get somebody back to optimal health and have success.

Amy Medling: Yeah, and I think that once you get to that feeling good feeling, and that’s what I help women do with the Jumpstart program, which we’re kind of eliminating those major inflammatory foods and adding in lots of anti-inflammatory foods. You get to a point where you feel really good and you kind of understand the concept of nothing tastes as good as feeling good feels.

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah.

Amy Medling: Then my Sparkle program, we take that even a step further where it’s a 14 day detoxification program. You’re really cutting out even more foods because you’re having two of the Sparkle shakes a day and then the rest of your food comes from clean animal protein or fruits and vegetables and really not a lot of grains. You’re taking that even further. Then you get to the point after the Sparkle and you’re like, “Wow, I feel really good. Now I’m kind of afraid of eating regularly again. I don’t want to lose that good feeling. I’m not really sure what I should be eliminating from my diet.” It ends up being kind of like an experiment. You might add corn back in and see how you feel with corn. You might add eggs back in for a couple days and see how you feel. You have a tool that kind of fast tracks all of that for us.

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah.

Amy Medling: I would love for you to tell us about it. I did your test that you’re going to talk about over the summer. It has had a huge impact in my life. I’m excited to tell everybody about it too.

Dr. Mikulis: It’s so great. I think your Jumpstart and your Sparkle programs are so amazing. It’s like to get somebody to that level to then cross over to have, it’s like it’s coming out of a cave. All the sudden the light is starting to shine and you’re starting to feel better and get back to yourself. Certainly for many women this is just really the icing on the cake in so many ways, because they haven’t been feeling good. They’ve been struggling possibly with weight gain and other problems that are related, hyper functioning endocrine system and other things that are related to their syndrome and all of the sudden they’ve made some changes that they have had a direct impact on. They’re doing the work ultimately, so they’ve made this direct impact in their life and they’re feeling better. Then they get to that place where it’s like, “Okay, I am a little bit tentative about bringing some foods back in.”

What I can say about that is that this next level … We say, okay the Sparkle program. Then what’s the other option for you to get closer and to be able to take the … Your foundational programs, the Jumpstart and the Sparkle program, as far as I’m concerned those are really amazing foundational programs that start people off in the right foot and send them soaring in the direction towards health. If we could just add another component to that, in my opinion, which is to be able to look at what are the specific foods that could be also aggravating you. When we have inflammation and we know that there’s certain foods that are going to cause inflammation, inflammation plus inflammation equals inflammation. If there’s a food that’s there, like I said before, that we don’t know that’s necessarily also contributing, we’re still going to be targeting the immune system and the endocrine system in a negative way.

What the food inflammation test does is it really looks closely in a very specific and sensitive way to 132 foods so that you can actually get closer to understanding. I can promise you, there’s always a surprise. I don’t have your test results in front of me, and I don’t know if you want to get into any of this detail, but usually with most of my clients there’s some sort of surprise event from doing their food sensitivity testing. They come out of it saying, “Wow, I had no idea that this was also part of the picture. I’m consuming those foods. By the way, this is a really good food.” This is what I hear a lot of, Amy. “This is a really good food. I had no idea that it could be causing me any problems.”

Lo and behold, they’re having such a strong immune response to that particular food, and maybe it’s not even within the category of what we know is commonly known inflammatory foods, but how that person is responding is in an inflammatory way. We can argue that even with taking out some of the more inflammatory foods that are notorious for causing additional inflammation, we can argue that that individual who is eating the foods that they’re sensitive to, they’re inspiring more inflammation because of the fact that they’re sensitive.

The truth of the matter is it gives you another basis for saying, “Okay, well if you knew that corn was on your list and you are having a strong reaction to corn, you wouldn’t bring it back into your diet after the Sparkle program. In fact, you would want to take it out even longer so that you would have another opportunity to really improve gut permeability and to take time to calm down the immune system.” Really, when we talk about inflammation it’s just a dance. Inflammation is just a dance between you and your immune system. Okay? Every time you have a food that’s playing a role in that dance, it’s the orchestration to that dance, it’s the collective effects.

This is why when we look at food being important, exercise is important, making sure that you’re doing self-care, and within all of those aspects of treating a syndrome like PCOS just like looking at inflammation in a big picture and saying, “What are all the contributing factors”, we can actually make more progress. For me, in my clinical practice with all of my clients, I’m really looking to do sensitivity testing because I want them to get closer and to have more success with things like your foundational programs with Jumpstart and Sparkle, so that then they could have longer lasting and in many cases reverse the damage that’s done, which is what we’re aiming for.

Amy Medling: I love that visualization of the dance of inflammation. It kind of pushes you into that autoimmune place where you’re susceptible to more autoimmune issues. Women with PCOS are like Hashimoto’s and celiac and other autoimmune disorders. The question that I have is the food allergy panel that I did and my husband did, and I do want to share about my results, but how does that differ? It was just a pinprick on my finger where you just blotted a little bit of blood on a piece of paper, how does that differ from going to an allergist and having all of those pinpricks on your back? I know I’ve taken my kids to the allergist. This is a very different kind of test. Maybe you could just explain how …

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely, yeah. What your kids did is really looking for food allergies and a particular immune response, which is known as an IgE type one hyper-sensitivity. That’s not the food sensitivity test that you did in my office where we did a finger stick and put your blood sample on blots and then we sent it to the lab. That’s what’s called an IgG delayed hypersensitivity. There’s a lot of information about the differences from an immune standpoint. What I can tell you is we really have a division here of food allergies, food sensitivities and food intolerances. Food allergies seem pretty clear. Usually in most cases I would say, and this is from my clinical practice. Now an allergist may have more information to add to this. There are people that are allergic type one hypersensitivity, and I often use the case of anaphylaxis as a really clear cut case, like peanut anaphylaxis.

What happens when that person comes in and sometimes if they really are allergic, there’s still levels of allergies. Not every person that has an allergy to peanuts has anaphylaxis. Somebody who does, they could come in a room and if peanuts were airborne they could have an anaphylaxis response, which airways could be shut off, they need intervention very quickly. That’s a very quick response. Okay? That happens very fast.

Where food sensitivities come in, and I like to look at this in a different way. From the standpoint of the immune system, there’s a lot happening there. Because so much is happening there it’s less of a quick response. Certain cells are talking to certain cells, and it’s typically within a 12 hour period where you’re going to see a response. Now that’s sort of interesting because I can say there’s definitely outliers. Our immune system is so dynamic. When I give time or response rates or anything, it’s really also based on the individual. I have patients that say, “If I consume gluten I won’t have a response for two days.” Then I have other patients who say, “I know really soon, like within a couple hours if I’ve had gluten because my fingers start to get inflamed or I get really thirsty or I wake up in the middle of the night.” 12 hours isn’t the magic number, but it’s a delayed response.

The difference between that and a type one hypersensitivity is really in many ways time. A food intolerance is a condition where the body reacts to food because there’s a lack of an enzyme and then damage to the gut lining from a disease or antibiotics, but it’s not necessarily that aspect. There can be a genetic component that predisposes the person to a food intolerance, but the reality is it’s not necessarily the same response that you would see in a delayed hypersensitivity or in a type one hypersensitivity, which is what we talked about in the very beginning of this conversation in regards to what your kids experienced when they went to the allergist. They had that skin test that was done, and then they were watching a response at the level of the skin. A type one hypersensitivity response, IgE mediated.

The interesting thing about that, I just want to make one other point, is yes people can be allergic IgE to many, many things. Often times it’s fairly clear. The person might eat something and they get in itchiness in their mouth or their throat or they develop hives or something like that. I typically see with IgG, so that’s the food sensitivity you did in my office, I typically see in those cases, and this is my theory, that over time as the person consumes foods that they’re sensitive to, that’s where the gut begins to break down. Our GI tract has the ability every time we consume food, our body is presented with food antigens and the body is saying, “Can I assimilate this or can I not assimilate it?” If the body can’t assimilate it it’s going to eventually bind and make these complexes that end up breaking down, if you are sensitive to the food they will end up over time breaking down the lining of the GI tract.

That’s when we begin to see immune responses at the level certainly of the GI tract no doubt, but then at the level of the systemic immune system. Now they’re beginning to really correlate that there’s some really clear understanding that food sensitivities can lead to bigger pathologies. There’s so many articles that are coming out right now that people are sending to me saying, “Oh, look at this work this doctor is doing.” There’s a pediatric doctor I think in California who has really drawn a correlation between Crohn’s and food sensitivities and doing specific diets to really decrease inflammation. I look at a food sensitivity as that slower insidious problem that doesn’t become a problem until it really becomes a problem. It’s wreaking havoc on your body until you start to become symptomatic.

Again, this all starts at the level of the digestive tract, specifically also for PCOS. In my opinion, when you look at the bigger problems as to why a person might be having, if it’s not a toxic related issue, ultimately in my opinion from the standpoint of PCOS, the truth of the matter is it starts with the GI tract and then things to askew from there. That’s a bigger topic of conversation. At the end of the day we can really look at food allergies as more of that type one hypersensitivity IgE mediated, food sensitivities type two and type three is delayed hypersensitivity and then food intolerance being enzyme deficiency, problems with food additives, damage to the gut lining from chemicals and toxins. I hope that answers your question. It seems a little bit confusing because we kind of use those terms loosely. The food test that we did is really, in my opinion, looking at how your body is responding from an inflammatory standpoint, IgG mediated.

Amy Medling: Yeah, and didn’t Hypocrites say all disease begins in the gut?

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah, and Hypocrites wasn’t the first to say that by the way. When you start reading the classical ancient text of Ayurveda, going back deep into that vedic knowledge, all of it comes back to the GI tract. I look forward to someday perhaps having a conversation about the bigger aha moments that Ayurveda really talks about as to why something like food would affect and cause a syndrome like PCOS.

Amy Medling: I cannot wait for that conversation. When we’ve talked about this, how much I love Ayurveda and how much balancing my dosha has really helped me manage my PCOS. We will have you on soon, Dr. Margrit to talk about Ayurveda and PCOS.

Dr. Mikulis: That’s great. I look forward to it.

Amy Medling: I also just wanted to direct listeners to posts and podcasts on my site. Dr. Felice Gersh has talked a lot about gut and PCOS and inflammation. They all tie together. I believe that learning your food sensitivities and getting to know them and start eliminating those foods can make a tremendous difference in your health. I’ve seen it in myself over the last six months since I’ve gotten my food allergy panel done by Dr. Margrit, and my husband as well. I have to tell you that I probably ate eggs two to three times a week, either for lunch or on the weekend for breakfast, and certainly in a lot of different paleo muffins and things that I was creating. I ate a lot of eggs. I was floored to find out that on a scale of 0 to 5, 5 being the highest level of intolerance that egg whites is basically up at the 5 line for me and egg yolks is about 4 1/2.

I have removed eggs from my diet and I can tell you that I’ve noticed more energy. I don’t feel so fatigued. I used to chalk that up to the grains, like in a muffin or something like that, but I really think it’s the eggs.

Dr. Mikulis: Wow, that’s amazing. How long have you had them out so far, just out of curiosity? We’re going to turn it real quick into a visit.

Amy Medling: Well let’s see. I did this in July, so I don’t know if it’s quite six months. July, August, September … Yeah it’s about six months. I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy through the holidays trying to find vegan substitutes for baked goods…

Dr. Mikulis: Oh yeah. You had egg yolk and egg white.

Amy Medling: Yeah, like four plus. Maybe you can just explain the different level of reactions and how the report sort of comes out.

Dr. Mikulis: Sure.

Amy Medling: I can pull up a picture of mine if people are interested.

Dr. Mikulis: I just happened to be in front of my computer, and I pulled your results up from my secured site. Yeah, you had egg yolk and egg white, which was a four plus reaction class. There’s typically five reaction class. There’s four plus, which is severe, three plus which is high, two plus which is moderate, one plus which is mild and then no reaction.

Some people are curious about, “Okay, well what do you mean she had egg yolk and egg white?” One of the cool things about this test is that it’s looking at yolk and it’s looking at white. Now in truth we can’t really separate the yolk and the white. Typically, some people get excited because they only have egg yolk. I have to give them the bad news that it’s really all egg, it’s just that we’re trying to look at the whole versus the part. Sometimes it’s actually really helpful for us to understand like in the case of wheat and gluten. If somebody is having a really strong response to gluten, well that’s really, really clear to me that gluten grains really need to be removed.

Egg yolk and egg white were in your four plus reaction class and you are having a severe response. I don’t think you and I ended up … I don’t know how much we discussed that link, but I typically tell people that anything in the four plus and the three plus reaction class, and frankly anything two plus, three plus and four plus, you have to really look at this is really causing a big problem in the GI tract. A lot of these tests, ultimately, what they’re really pointing to is that there is some sort of issue from a gut immunology standpoint where the inflammation and the permeability and the problems with you dealing with food antigens, it’s not a happy experience for your gut.

When I see these things, basically what I tell people is, “Look, we’re trying to find what the obstacle to cure is.” Once we see what that is in the food, we need to pull it out and we have to take a period of time away from it to one, decrease inflammation and two, calm down the immune system. Sometimes that takes longer in people than in other people, and then sometimes a two plus reaction class … It’s not like you have a four plus, you’re necessarily going to be on the floor keeled over, but sometimes you are, actually. It’s really based on the individual.

Often times people are like, “Well, you have these treatment guidelines, but why do I have to follow this if I don’t feel like I’m having that strong of a response?” Well if you’re not having that strong of a response do you want to wait until you are having that strong of a response, or do you kind of want to nip it in the bud and calm things down so that maybe perhaps you can bring the food back into rotation and have it from time to time without having a really big issue? That’s one scenario.

The other scenario is if you have a lot of pathology and a lot of inflammation. We’re talking to an audience who has PCOS already. PCOS, and I think probably you’ll agree with me, if we wanted to really just, “Okay, what’s one word that we could break down and say”, we could say PCOS is inflammation. Okay? If we have inflammation in the body already, because we have PCOS, we want to stop that. If you’re having a strong immune response and you’re eating foods that are causing more inflammation, you really want to stop that. Taking the food out for a specific period of time, it’s kind of like what you were saying with your Jumpstart and your Sparkle, it’s like, “Okay, well what next?” What next is we want to have a cure.

The body doesn’t cure overnight, as you know Amy, right, and as your listeners know. It takes time. All of the things that happen with PCOS, so the hypothyroid, the androgen issues, the acne, the obesity, the anovulation, menstrual irregularity, all of those things that are happening, one thing I think we can really all agree on is that it’s multisystem. It’s not just the reproductive system, right? The fat is involved, the endocrine system is involved. It becomes this multisystem problem that you need to address. If you’re not addressing it from the root cause of inflammation you’re not going to get there.

That’s why a lot of people that struggle don’t end up making the process they want to make because they think that there’s necessarily a time limit on it. What your site offers and what your programs offer is a way of life, to change so that you can actually get better and cross over. That’s really why I think food sensitivity testing is important, because it’s giving you an additional tool to say, “Okay, now I know. Now I know really a fuller picture of what could be causing a problem in my diet that can be contributing to the inflammatory process that I’m already dealing with.”

Amy Medling: Yeah, and I think that’s what I loved about it. For my husband he was dealing with atrial fibrillation and couldn’t really figure out what would trigger an episode for him. He had his food allergy panel done, found out that he was number four plus reactive for baker’s yeast and brewer’s yeast. Boy, that’s a tough one to be allergic to yeast, because it’s in like everything. Vinegars are difficult. Any kind of sauces.

Dr. Mikulis: Yeah, that is a really hard one.

Amy Medling: Yeah. It was interesting because if it kind of snuck in I felt like I was poisoning the poor guy. If somehow it snuck in, and I didn’t realize it, he would inevitably have another palpitation.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely.

Amy Medling: You know, another episode. It is, it’s that inflammation and that’s really what was causing the heart to kind of an electrical malfunction was inflammation. I think his …

Dr. Mikulis: Can I just interject? I’m so sorry. Go ahead.

Dr. Mikulis: I just wanted to say one quick thing when we were talking before about the differences between food allergies and food sensitivities and intolerances. The truth of the matter is with food sensitivities, they can affect any organ system. Typically, with food allergies, they’re usually limited to airways, skin and the GI tract, and then food intolerances, same thing, they can affect any organ system. The truth of the matter is that because of that, and this is probably one of the things that I’m sure I said to you and to your husband when we got his results back, I’ve seen every organ system effected.

I remember over in the winter time I was having a conversation with a cardiologist about another cardiac patient that I had that we did food sensitivity testing with. They had a really amazing resolution. One of the things that they’re really drawing a very strong correlation with cardiovascular health is this inflammation component. Again, it’s nothing different than what we’re talking about today with PCOS. With food sensitivities, because they can affect any organ, you have to really take them seriously. Again, it’s going back to it’s not just happening at the level of the GI tract. These food complexes are forming in the GI tract and then somehow they’re getting out into the systemic body.

Once that cascade of events starts happening, that’s when you start seeing problems in wreaking havoc in other aspects of the body that effect all the other systems or can effect all the other systems.

Amy Medling: Yeah. Anyone listening that is really looking to solve another piece of the PCOS puzzle and to have as Dr. Margrit said another tool, I would highly recommend this food allergy panel and work with Dr. Margrit. She will tell you how you can do that. I do want to just say, one of the surprises for me on my panel was pineapple. As a health coach I was like, “I’m going to have some pineapple after meals because of the bromelain and how it helps digestive enzyme.” I thought this is something that I’m doing good, just a couple pieces after meals, and it was something that I enjoyed. It was kind of like a little dessert, but little did I know that that was kind of adding to my inflammation.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely, I know. Again, that kind of goes back to what I was saying before about how some people think that “Yeah, well I’m eating this food because it’s good”, and it is good. Pineapple is not a bad food, it’s just that your immune system responds to it very differently than somebody else like me. I don’t have a sensitivity to pineapple. If we can get closer to understanding which foods and being … This is where individualized medicine really sort of becomes an art form. Right? It’s like all the sudden that person with PCOS who is getting success can take it to another level and really understand what are the other additional components that are really playing a role. I’m looking forward to maybe people getting more and more exposed to this.

Food sensitivities aren’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, it’s just there on the rise. There’s so many factors. That’s a whole other show in itself too, Amy. Ultimately I think if we can really dial it back and use food as medicine then we’re going to get better across the board. You’ve got to treat the gut. It’s foundational medicine, and then you’ll have success. There’s no doubt.

Amy Medling: Yeah. I mean getting to the root cause, and I think this is one way to get to that root cause.

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely.

Amy Medling: Dr. Margrit, why don’t you tell us how we could reach out to you about the food allergies and maybe get one of these tests done for ourselves?

Dr. Mikulis: Absolutely. As you know, Amy, we’re launching the Food First project. That information will hopefully be ready to access when you launch your Sparkle program. In the meantime if somebody does want to get in touch with me they can certainly call me and reach me at my office, 603-594-0002 or they could send an email at info@livingnaturalinc.com. That’s info@livingnaturalinc.com, the inc. is incorporated. If anyone in your audience is interested in doing any testing with me, if they mention the coupon code called “food diva“, we’ll give them 10% off of their test and be happy to serve your community.

Amy Medling: Oh, that’s fantastic. Thank you so much for that.

Dr. Mikulis: Oh, wonderful. Yes, definitely.

Amy Medling: Yeah, and thank you for joining us today and kind of getting this information out about this fabulous test and how it can really help women with PCOS kind of fine tune their own bodies and their care plan.

Dr. Mikulis: Well, thank you so much. I’m so impressed with your work. I’m really looking forward to doing some collaboration. I’m hopeful that all of your clients and audience can really find some great benefit through your programs and perhaps through something I offer down the road.

Amy Medling: Awesome. Yeah, I cannot wait for you to come back to talk about Ayurveda. For those listening, Dr. Margrit is an educator at Kripalu, which I still have not gotten there. It’s on my bucket list. One day I will.

Dr. Mikulis: Well hopefully one of these days I’ll be here with you.

Amy Medling: Okay, sounds good. Well that wraps up our podcast today. Thank you so much for joining us on the PCOS Diva Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. If you liked this episode, don’t forget to subscribe to PCOS Diva on iTunes or wherever else you might be listening to this show. If you have a minute please leave me a quick review on iTunes, because I’d really love to hear from you. Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter. Just enter your email at pcosdiva.com to get instant access, and make sure that you never miss out on a future podcast. This is Amy Medling, and I’m wishing you good health. I look forward to being with you again soon. Bye-bye.

The post Food Sensitivity Testing- Your Next Step in Healing PCOS? [Podcast] appeared first on PCOS Diva.

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