An Integrated GP's Blog

We have all become conscious of how we smell and the issue is worse with women than it is with men. We tend to overestimate our BO (body odor) and the reason for this being that our nose’s are the closest to our armpits than our closest neighbor (though we don't think of it that way). Smell and odor are terms that are now associated with negative emotions and attitudes and this is made worse by the gradual introduction of censorious language to our culture that we all now associate negatively with smell such as ‘smelling a rat’ or ‘kicking up a stink’ etc.

BO has now created a stigma in society that if you have it,you’re deemed unclean.While this may ring true in certain situations,this is not the case always. Let’s take a brief look at animals and see how they have lived over the ages in the wild. We have all seen how dog’s sniff each other (especially their back-ends) and this is a way of understanding and getting accustomed to the animal creating an identity. Its like a memory log that matches the smell to the particular animal and animals have them all stored in their ‘databases’ which enables them to identify friend vs foe.

Similarly,we all have our own distinct odors.Some of us smell oniony, others chocolaty,musty,flowery, yughh etc. I am in no way saying that we all need to start a sniff test for identification purposes but rather using an example of how humans are similar to animals in many ways (which is the very reason why various animals and rodents are used a lot in the drug and vaccine trials).

Our bodies are bathed in an array of microbes feasting on your body’s secretions.Men tend to have more BO than women and this is because of the dominance of a species called Corynebacterium over Staphylococcus,the latter being more dominant in women. The sweat from men have lipid (fat) molecules which Corynebacterium love to feed on hence creating more abundance of these bacteria and thereby causing the odor.

As always,we have a hero & savior and this time it's the cosmetic industry who have capitalized on the opportunity to create ‘life saving’ antiperspirants to save the day. And yes,you do smell unlike yourself and more ‘bearable’ but at a cost of causing microbial dysbiosis (imbalance) on your skin. A study done in Belgium in 2013,revealed that using chemically formulated deodorants create a vicious cycle of further dysbiosis that is self perpetuating causing more feed forward loops in using more deo to counter the persistent odor.

These days we see kids as little as 5 using these nasty products that then contribute to our current skin disease pandemic of eczema,psoriasis and what not. My advice to patients on this matter is short; Keep it simple and smell like you. You will only sweat off what goes into you (mainly the gut) that then gets processed by the body (sweat being a channel of excretion of unwanted body waste). After all, did your mother or father tell you when you were born that you are to smell like a bouquet of roses (any lullabies or stories that you can recollect?)

To summarise, why not take the centuries old sniff test: Skip the deo and let’s see if your mother can identify you in the dark!

Did you know that there are symptoms of undiagnosed hypothyroidism and that it is possible to just have a few of them and not all and be hypothyroid? Did you know that your laboratory biomarkers can be falsely reassuring?

Top 10 symptoms suggestive of Hypothyroidism:
Chronic tiredness or fatigue
Unexplained weight gain
Sensitivity to the cold
Dry hair or skin and scalp hair loss
Menstrual irregularities
Swelling or puffiness
Muscle aches and or joint pains
Constipation
Low mood or depression
Low s*x drive

There are different angles of looking at thyroid disease and this includes the history of a person's illness, symptoms of disease,using various questionnaires,nutritional evaluation,laboratory biomarkers and concluding the diagnosis and providing management.

Thyroid disease is the most under recognized disease worldwide with up to 10% of the general population having sub clinical (un diagnosed) hypothyroidism and only 1% having clinical (having a diagnosed problem). The disease is more common in women with 1 in 4 having evidence of chronic autoimmune thyroid disease. Hypothyroidism as a possible cause for chronic disease gets less likes in modern day medicine.

As Dr. Jeffrey Bland says, the thyroid is a sentinel gland for the environment having huge interconnections with the person's lifestyle and surroundings. Today,we live in a world where we are bombarded with pollutants and toxins that affect our health in various ways.

The term for these compounds are EDC’s or Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (like Roundup or Glyphosate) and they compromise the ability of our endocrine system (the glands and hormonal systems) to function at its optimum and therefore under perform most of our lives.

This compounded by our modern day lifestyle of high chronic stress,nutrient deficiencies from nutrient poor diets and medications play a multi-factorial role in causing thyroid illness.

If these symptoms are adding up to the myriad of problems of your life, I recommend a systems based approach to look at matters with an ultra wide angle lens,which then helps you to address issues in your body in a better way.

If you need assistance,please contact 9754 7566 to arrange an appointment.

We have only started thinking about the role of foods in our search for a cause for our current modern day chronic disease epidemic. This has been largely fueled by the knowledge we have been acquiring about our gut microbiome.

For those who are science naive,the gut microbiome refers to the trillions of bacteria that reside within your colon that are not disease causing but rather are life giving,life forming and disease healing. Until 15-20 years ago,we knew little about these microorganisms that co-inhabit,whose DNA outnumber our own by a ratio of 10:1! It's news, right? It's good news because we now know that we are not human alone but rather we are a colony of microorganisms that function in symbiosis to keep us alive and healthy. Each of our microbiome is unique and is a footprint of health and vitality that is responsible for digestion and absorption of nutrients,regulation of hormones in the body,cell signalling and talk,production of vitamins and neurotransmitters and lots more.

Ever wondered where 90% of the receptors for your happy hormone serotonin are? Ever wondered where 70% or more of the serotonin needed for optimal brain function is synthesized? You guessed it - The Gut.

Now let’s think about our modern day western foods (I am not referring to foods that our ancestors grew up eating). Our foods have changed dramatically in the last 50-100 years,now largely consisting of highly processed and refined foods made with highly inflammatory ingredients. Cooking and eating home made foods is becoming increasingly difficult with our modern day work and family life and it's easier to ‘grab’ something on the way. Ever wondered how this is prepared and did you think about the nitty gritty of the cooking methods and the actual ingredients? You would if it were a drug, so why not here in this instance?

Next week, I will share some amazing facts about the gut microbiome that will blow your mind away and get you thinking more deeply about the tenants residing inside of you. Guaranteed,when finished, you will be a better landlord (or want to be one at least)!