Sarah Ballantyne > Quotes

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. ” —IRISH PROVERB”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Doctors give drugs of which they know little, into bodies, of which they know less, for diseases of which they know nothing at all.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Gluten is extremely good at breaching the intestinal barrier, causing a leaky gut in the process, and then directly activating the immune system. If you have an autoimmune disease and eat gluten, I urge you to ban gluten from your diet for the rest of your life. Your body will thank you.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) has been studied in the treatment of liver disease. The active component, silymarin, is found in the entire plant but is concentrated in the fruit and seeds. Silymarin is a potent antioxidant and acts as a toxin blockade by inhibiting toxins from binding to membrane receptors on the surface of liver cells (called hepatocytes). Silymarin can protect the liver from being injured by, for example, different toxins, radiation, and iron overload. It has been successfully used to treat alcoholic liver disease, acute and chronic viral hepatitis, and toxin-induced liver diseases. (There are also some studies showing no effect of silymarin and many studies showing that vitamin C is just as good.) While seeds are generally avoided on the Paleo Approach, milk thistle seed extract may be a beneficial supplement (unless the very small amount of alcohol in the supplement is not tolerated; see here). Milk thistle tea is also a good option.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). H. pylori is frequently accused of contributing to the development and progression of autoimmune disease (and is also one of the best-understood persistent infections). As mentioned in the previous section, H. pylori is a bacterium found in the upper gastrointestinal tract of approximately 50 percent of the population and is known to cause stomach ulcers in susceptible individuals. It also modulates the adaptive immune system through a very complex interaction. In fact, the interaction is so complex that acquiring H. pylori early in life prevents immune and autoimmune diseases. By contrast, acquiring H. pylori as an adult (which is more common in Western countries) increases the risk of immune dysfunction.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Furthermore, eating a diet rich in fats—especially quality animal fats, fats from fish, and fats from coconut, avocado, and olives—will not only not make you fat, but will help you achieve a healthier weight.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity. ” —HIPPOCRATES”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“For more information or guidance, check out Why Stomach Acid Is Good for You: Natural Relief from Heartburn, Indigestion, Reflux, and GERD, by Jonathan V. Wright, MD, and Lane Lenard, PhD.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Doctors give drugs of which they know little, into bodies, of which they know less, for diseases of which they know nothing at all.” —VOLTAIRE”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Borrelia. Borrelia are spirochete bacteria typically transmitted by lice and ticks. (Lyme disease is caused by borrelia.) Rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis, schizophrenia (suspected to be an autoimmune disease), and dementia (also suspected to be an autoimmune disease) are all associated with Borrelia infections.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“soybeans (including edamame, tofu, tempeh, other soy products, and soy isolates, such as soy lecithin).”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“It’s also important to eat what most people would typically recognize as a “balanced meal”: some protein, some fat, and some carbohydrates, including fiber. This translates well to eating quality meats and fish, quality added fats, large portions of nonstarchy vegetables, and some starchy vegetables and fruit. Recommendations for portion sizes and macronutrient ratios are discussed in more detail on see here.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Exposure to pristane is known to dramatically increase risk of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“However, any food that is difficult to digest can contribute to bacterial overgrowth. This is especially true if there are other hindrances to digestion, such as low stomach acid, inadequate pancreatic enzymes, or inadequate bile salts.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“A number of clinical trials have shown benefits (though sometimes modest) of dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids in several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, and migraine headaches. In fact, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, supplementation with fish oil led to substantial improvements in joint swelling, pain, and morning stiffness and enabled them to reduce their use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Supplementation is beneficial because it helps correct the balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid intake. The Paleo Approach goes one very important step further because it focuses not only on increasing omega-3 fatty acids (from whole-food sources such as fish, shellfish, and pasture-raised meats) but also on decreasing omega-6 fatty acids (by avoiding processed vegetable oils, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds). Achieving the proper ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids will contribute substantially to the management of autoimmune disease and to overall health.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“The authors calculated that 2.24 million deaths from cardiovascular disease, 660,000 deaths from cancer, and 7.8 million deaths from all causes could be avoided globally each year if everyone consumed 800 grams of veggies and fruits every day. Wow!”
― Sarah Ballantyne, Nutrivore: The Radical New Science for Getting the Nutrients You Need from the Food You Eat

“Balance between Th1 and Th2 (and indeed among Th9, Th17, and Th22) can also be achieved by focusing on bodywide reduction of inflammation, removal of immune system triggers, and supporting healthy Th3, Tr1, and regulatory T cell production and activity. Basically, balance can be achieved naturally by following the Paleo Approach—no immune-stimulating botanicals required!”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“genetically modified grains typically contain higher levels of agglutinins to help protect industrial crops from pests. Wheat”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Whole-grain products have a profound impact on blood glucose: for example, two slices of multigrain bread increase blood glucose as much as six spoonfuls of sugar.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Interestingly, there is even less diversity of gut bacteria in obese people than in lean people: more food does not equal more nutrition, and the worse your diet, the more your gut microflora suffers.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“It is also worth mentioning that several ailments are known to occur very frequently in conjunction with autoimmune disorders. They are: Cholangitis Chronic fatigue syndrome Eczema Fibromyalgia Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS); this occurs frequently in conjunction with autoimmune thyroid diseases These are not autoimmune diseases themselves (or at least have not been confirmed as such), but because of their association with autoimmune disease, they may indicate that an autoimmune disease is present. If you suffer from one of these conditions, it is a sign that it’s time to make diet and lifestyle changes to keep autoimmunity at bay.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“our digestive enzymes are not very good at breaking apart the bond between two prolamins. The result is twofold: first, gluten is known to cross the intestinal barrier, either intact or partly digested; second, gluten (and other prolamins) can disproportionally feed the bacteria in the gut, leading to gut dysbiosis”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Even normal gut bacteria can provide the stimulus to produce autoantibodies if they leak out of the gut. A recent research paper showed that proteins in the probiotic strains of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli (which typically inhabit everyone’s gut) have an incredible similarity to amino acid sequences within two important proteins for thyroid function—thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin. In fact, the study definitively showed that antibodies against these thyroid proteins could also bind to probiotic strains: these antibodies are clinical features of autoimmune thyroid diseases.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognizeas food. There”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“It worked. I cut out what others had identified as trigger foods, and within a year I was back to normal. Actually, I was better than normal. Along with eliminating my MS symptoms, I also lost a ton of weight and transformed my body from inflamed to supple. The change was profound. I couldn’t shut up about it! I needed to shout it from the rooftops because it almost didn’t happen. I almost let my chance to heal slip away simply because I couldn’t imagine not eating bread.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“Depending on the toxin, the level of exposure, and the autoimmune disease, removing the offending chemical from the environment may or may not provide a benefit. In some cases, removing that trigger to autoimmune disease will enable a full recovery to take place. In other cases, the damage has been done, and removing the harmful substance will not promote healing. (That doesn’t mean you can’t recover; it just means that diet and lifestyle are even more important.)”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“You need to eat fat to be healthy.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“support nutritional guidelines that are already twenty years out of sync with biological, medical, and nutrition research.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“While lectins in general are often vilified as being the cause of a leaky gut, only a subset of lectins (generally prolamins and agglutinins) are actually of concern because these proteins are difficult to digest and are known to interact strongly with the brush border of the intestine”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body

“This means that even though milk, plain yogurt, cheese, and the like do not contain enough sugar to cause hyperglycemia and the resulting postprandial inflammation, they do prompt the release of insulin. In fact, they cause more insulin to be released than white bread does.”
― Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body