Gains and Losses during the 2020 Pandemic
By Dr. William H. Karl, D.C.
This pandemic has led to conditions and restrictions unlike any other time in history. In our country, we’re faced with the possibility of many of our precious freedoms being stripped from us in the name of the public good.
But who are the restrictions good for? Who is actually benefitting from them? These are complex questions that each individual should research for themselves in order to find real answers — not just answers offered up from any one political party or a supposed do-gooder organization.
Many answers that sound good on the surface may actually be evil. This is why it’s important to look at the whole picture. From my viewpoint, it appears that many changes being implemented as a result of the pandemic may affect the core of our existence and ultimately affect our freedom. America is our beautiful country and is referred to as The Land of the Free. Let’s keep it that way.
Now let’s switch to a little lighter subject, although one that’s almost as emotionally upsetting for some people. You’re not alone if you’ve gained weight and/or don’t feel as healthy as you were before the pandemic lock-down.
Why did you gain weight? The lock-down led to social isolation, which is devastating in and of itself. Not leaving the house to go to work, the gym, or to spend time with family and friends is often depressing, even for people that aren’t particularly social. It’s also well known that depressed people don’t tend to take care of themselves.
Depressed individuals typically don’t eat or sleep well. Stress-eating, indulging in comfort foods, and not exercising compound these problems. Even though gyms weren’t open, perhaps you thought about exercising but couldn’t get yourself motivated. That’s not surprising as many people may prefer pajamas to exercise clothes.
Besides your emotions getting in the way, likely, much of the food you’ve been ingesting throughout the lock-down has multiple ingredients with names you can’t even pronounce. Farmer’s markets have been closed until recently, and stores weren’t getting timely deliveries of many foods — so even if you wanted to eat right, it was much harder. Add with unscrupulous food manufacturer’s attempts to tantalize your taste buds with excessive amounts of processed table salt, unnatural sugars, MSG, and chemicals called obesogens; you’re lucky to be able to think straight!
Obesogens do as the name indicates; they trigger the production of fat cells, which may lead to obesity while your taste buds are saying, “This tastes amazing, I want more!” Kudos to those of you that are able to escape these traps, but if you’re still caught within their grip, you must be proactive! Many diseases prey on those with weakened immune systems. You’re a prime target for disease when you eat non-foods, and your body becomes riddled with their poisons.
Eating junk foods, especially those high in refined sugar and/or eating in excess, puts you at a higher risk for disease. People with diabetes or a pre-diabetic person is at even greater risk as their pancreas usually isn’t functioning well. One of the many jobs of the pancreas is sodium bicarbonate production that forms the stomach’s protective middle layer, allowing it to produce an ample supply of hydrochloric acid without burning the stomach muscle wall.
Hydrochloric acid sterilizes food as it enters the stomach, killing any virus, bacteria, fungus, or other opportunistic invaders that would otherwise make us sick. It also acidifies the body at other potential entry points, inhibiting disease-causing entities. While we’ve known for some time that proton pump inhibitors are bad news, the study “Proton Pump Inhibitors Tied to Covid-19 Risk” published July 7, 2020, in The American Journal of Gastroenterology confirms this yet again. This study showed a 50% increased risk for Covid-19 for those people taking acid blockers or any type of antacid. Wow!
This study shows antacids at the top of the list for Covid-19 risk. It seems that it would only be logical that this would be followed by those who drink alkaline water. This water is artificially processed to have a PH of greater than 7.
To avoid drugs for symptoms of indigestion, the solution is to eat and digest healthy foods. Indigestion = non-digestion of foods. (Do you remember being told to chew your food x number of times?) Even if you chew your food well and eat raw foods, you’ll still need to add enzymes back whenever you eat any food that’s been cooked over 114 degrees. If not, you will tax your body and reduce your energy.
How else can you start feeling better? Bio-hacking your gut bacteria can help boost your mood. Recent studies reveal that certain probiotics affect the activity and connectivity in the emotion centers in the brain, called the gut-brain axis.
Since your gut bacteria affect your brain, you can feel free to blame the bacteria in your gut for your emotional turmoil and food cravings. Over half the cells in your body are bacteria. Harmful bacteria survives and thrives off of junk food, whereas good bacteria love vegetables and healthy foods. (To learn about a program to change your gut biome, give us a call.)
In my office, we encourage patients to eat nutritionally dense foods, especially ones that are raw, organic, and/or fermented. We also carry several different types of probiotics. Since every individual has different needs and is in different stages of their healing journey, we utilize muscle testing to determine which supplements and/or which foods provide the most benefit.
It’s exciting to live in an age where new information and new advances in products every day. One example is a product just introduced intended to grab fat and take it to the energy-producing mitochondria in the heart to burn for fuel. Cleaning toxins out of the body is also essential for long-term weight loss and health.
We can all come out of this strong and healthy if we do the right things. Are YOU ready to start?
Dr. William H. Karl, D.C., is a Brimhall Certified Wellness Doctor with over 40 years of experience helping people obtain optimal health. Mention this article when you call to receive a FREE CONSULTATION with either Dr. William H. Karl, DC, or Dr. Jacob H. Karl, DC. Visit www.KarlWellnessCenter.com or call 734.425.8220 for more information.
