The Fundaments of Health

We are preparing our body for the detox of all detoxes.  The cleanse of all cleanses.  Trust me, we are embarking on an almost religious experience together through this gut health journey.  You might not believe in god or goddesses today, but maybe you will once we get through this together.

In holistic medicine it is believed that you must heal the root in the ground so that the tree is stable first.  Meaning, if you are trying to get healthy it is best to get the body right first before trying to get anything else done. 

If you don’t do much exercise to begin with, do not try to start exercising now.  Try exercising if you can, but if you’re really unhealthy and are not used to exercising everyday just remember that this journey is a marathon and not a sprint.  It is much more fruitful for you on this gut health journey to be getting your body’s foundation correct first, before placing it through the stress of a detox or cleanse or new exercise regimen.

Why take supplements?

The biggest reason why I use nutritional supplementation is because I’m convinced that the food we are buying here in America has become completely unrecognizable to my human microbiome.  Due to the rise of genetic engineering and modified foods (GMOs), I believe that our bodies no longer recognizes the crops we are eating. 

When your doctor, parent, or whatever, is telling you that you should be able to get all your nutrients, vitamins and minerals from food sources alone, this is partially true historically.  And somewhat geographically varied in this day and age.  Yes, in an ideal world we should be able to obtain all our nutrients from food alone, and yes there was a time when this was happening, but it just isn’t happening anymore. And the sooner we admit that something is wrong with our food, the happier and better we’ll be.

During the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, even up until the 90’s I would argue that almost all food was still organic because this was prior to the advent of GMO’s in the 2000s.  There was no other alternative.  Organic was the mainstream and there were no other options.  Processed foods weren’t really a thing back then either, this came later.

Somewhere during the mid-2000s, there was a switch: organic foods became a rarity and now GMOs have become the norm.  Not for all countries but definitely a lot of them in the west.  This is why I’m saying it is partially true AND geographically varied because some countries outright banned GMOs when they first started coming out.  And at the introduction of GMOs in the 2000’s, coincidentally, auto-immune diseases have since sky-rocketed yet nobody talks about it. 

Why did we make the switch to GMOs?  The west and America places a greater importance on profits over the quality of what’s being produced.  The bottom-line profits are more important every time.  This is capitalism.  Genetic manipulation of crops allows agriculturalists to obtain much higher yields per crop but this exchange is costing us our health. 

I think “their” long game is that we’ll just adapt to these new crops over time.  But when I look around and see how many people are walking around nutrient deficient, it surely is the food and I don’t expect our bodies to suddenly start absorbing these foreign entities.

Because most food in America is nutrient deficient, it is smart to take supplements to make up whatever nutrient deficiencies we might need addressing from our food.  Just my two cents.

Make no mistake: no nutrient, vitamin, nor mineral is ever going to compete with the bioavailability of food.  The best way to get your vitamins and minerals is still from food but it must be organic.  Organic food is — and always will be — the best way for humans to obtain their nutrients.  Through food.  But if food isn’t recognizable to our bodies then our bodies are going to reject it.

Multivitamins

Pure Encapsulations O.N.E. Multivitamin - Once Daily Multivitamin with Antioxidant Complex Metafolin, CoQ10, and Lutein to Support Vision, Cognitive Function, and Cellular Health

This multivitamin has zinc in it, which might interfere with the absorption of certain medications so please do your own research.  Zinc absorption also affects copper absorption so please pay attention carefully.

Copper and zinc go hand in hand in many ways but they also repel in many ways – if you get too much copper it can deplete your zinc, if you get too much zinc it can deplete your copper.  Not only this but copper and zinc compete for absorption in the stomach, which explains why they’re needing to be taken 2 hours apart.  

Striking the correct ratio between zinc and copper can be difficult but when you get it right, your body will thank you for it.  Watch out for my Patreon launch with my morning Collagen + Copper + Coffee recipe!  There’s a couple hidden secrets in there too, so it’s well worth the subscription.

I take copper first with my collagen supplement in my morning coffee and then I wait 2 hours before eating breakfast with my multivitamin.

Don’t forget it takes at least 6 weeks for our bodies to absorb nutrients from these new things so stay patient, consistent, and persevere.

B – Vitamins Complex

Pure Encapsulations B-Complex Plus - B Vitamins Supplement to Support Neurological Health, Cardiovascular Health, Energy Levels, Nervous System Support, and More

If you’re waking up groggy and tired every morning, you should try re-upping on those b-vitamins.  This is the one I take.

It is my inherent belief that we are all walking chemical blood bags and when these chemicals are out of whack so are our hormones and therefore our moods and everything else.  I’m all about balancing out the endocrine system.  B-vitamins are so important when it comes to balancing out one’s thyroid, which is literally the epicenter of our endocrine system alongside the hypothalamus part of our brain.  The neck is basically the part of our body that houses all of our hormonal regulatory properties.

Make careful note of the beverages you’re consuming.  If you consume a lot of liquids with tannins in them (coffee, tea, wine, caffeine & alcohol in general) then a b-vitamin complex is crucial.  A tannin is what interferes with our body’s ability to absorb the very important vitamin-b1 (thiamine), vitamin-a, and a bunch of other crucial b-vitamins. 

How Often: Twice per day. 

Timing: For maximum effect take after consuming high tannin drinks.  Fair warning, your caffeine buzz will subside after you take the b-vitamin.  So, maybe give it 2 or 3 hours of enjoying your caffeine buzz before you take the b-vitamin if you can time it this way.

What I do:

I try to not stress too much about it because if I stress about it then I won’t do it.  If I can time 2 – 3 hours after my morning coffee.  Great.  Some days it isn’t feasible.  Taking it is always better than not taking it, but I do notice a difference when I time it correctly.

Most days I get busy and can’t time it correctly so I just take it with all the rest of my vitamins at breakfast.  It is more important to take it with regularity than it is to time it, but yes timing does make a huge difference.  I try and take my last one after my night-time tea, which obviously has a lot of tannins.  And when I do take my b-vitamin complex after my nighttime tea, I do notice a difference upon waking up.

How long to feel effects: You’ll begin feeling less groggy upon waking up almost immediately.  B-vitamins are water soluble so you will absorb more with the more water you drink.  I do notice my urine turns very yellow, so I try to remember to stay hydrated within reason. Hydration is its own blog post.

Take note of how your body feels on the days you don’t take it, how groggy you feel getting up the next day.  Remember this and keep it in your brain as motivation to keep it up because waking up feeling refreshed and rested should be important to you.  For full and maximum effects like everything it’ll take 6 weeks.

Cod Liver Oil

Carlson - Cod Liver Oil Gems, 460 mg Omega-3s, Plus Vitamins A and D3, Wild Caught Norwegian Arctic Cod Liver Oil, Sustainably Sourced Nordic Fish Oil Capsules

I’m all about the anti-inflammatory diet.  One of the biggest things that is good for our bodily inflammation is taking an omega supplement.  I’ve taken plenty of different fish oils over the years, and I would say with full certainty that cod liver oil is in fact the most effective.

We are about to put our body through a lot of inflammation when we begin to cleanse and detox, which I will be posting about soon.  My goal is to prepare your body for the journey that it is about to undertake.  The easiest way to do this is by firstly building up your own vitamin stores, and beginning to build up your anti-inflammatory markers.

Cod liver oil is also very protective of our brains.  I do notice when I run out and there is a lapse between days, my memory isn’t quite as strong.  I know that sounds crazy, but I do feel more “brainpower” when I’m taking cod liver oil with every meal.

Timing: They say that omegas can make one feel sleepy, so be weary and experiment with taking it at different times of the day.  If you find yourself getting sleepy when you take your omegas after breakfast, maybe move it to an afternoon or evening supplement?

How often? Honestly though, as often as possible.  I take 2 grams of cod-liver oil with every meal.  Yes, that’s a bit excessive but it doesn’t make me tired or groggy, nor does it make me want to fall asleep!  And if I do get tired, I have the luxury of time so this boy likes to siesta, ya know?

How long to feel effects: After 2 weeks you should feel less inflammation, but like most things it takes 6 weeks to catch its full effect.

In Conclusion

Stay patient, be consistent, and persevere.  I’m here with you every step of the way.

X

Extra Credit: Only Eating Organic

The case made for organic is that it tastes better and to me that is reason enough to buy it!  Why does it taste better?  I’m not sure but my guess is that it is more nutrient dense.  Go ahead and try it for yourself.  Go and buy some grass-fed organic ribeye steak from Whole Foods, and then get a regular ribeye that’s fed corn stock and tell me if you can taste a difference.

If you can’t afford steak, which is honestly so understandable in this economy.  Go and buy two green granny smith apples; one organic and one inorganic, and let me know if you can taste the difference.

PRO TIP:  If you are trying to minimize fermentation in your gut because you are healing it, peel the skins off the apples.  Apple is a high FODMAP food and I always take the skins off before eating mine.  Plus don’t run the risk of ingesting all those gross sprays that you know have penetrated that apple’s skin.

ZMA

This is the supplement I was talking about on the podcast.

Did you know that magnesium is needed for over 300 bodily functions? Did you know that a lot of people are deficient in magnesium? Did you know that one cup of coffee in the morning can deplete the body of all your magnesium stores? Did you know that it can takes days, weeks even, to build up the magnesium stores in your bloodstream?

Well, now you do!

Most importantly, did you know that magnesium can help you achieve good sleep? Why? Because magnesium has the ability to normalize and extend stage 3 and stage 4 of slow-wave sleep. This is crucial for athletes as a deeper state of sleep can help to raise growth hormone levels that peak during the night at hour 6 & hour 8 of sleep:

Research suggests that Zinc, Magnesium, and Vitamin b6 taken together has significant benefits to the endocrine system. There was a study performed at Western Washington University (Bellingham) that had NCAA football players take ZMA or a placebo every night during an eight-week spring training program. Athletes taking the ZMA experienced more than a 30-percent increase in testosterone levels, and about a 5-percent increase in levels of the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).* Those taking a placebo had a 10-percent decrease in testosterone levels and a greater than 20-percent decrease in levels of IGF-1.

In addition to benefits seen with hormone levels, the ZMA-supplemented athletes made significantly greater gains in strength, power, and achieved better sleep quality, than the placebo group. Better sleep quality also helps to aid muscle recovery from tough workouts.

These benefits occurred in the ZMA group despite the fact that the analyses of their diets found that the NCAA football athletes were all consuming well over the recommended intake for zinc. It would appear that ZMA increases the bio-availability and nutritional content of food. Meaning that more nutrients are being absorbed into the human body from food with the ZMA group.

It Is Good For Cortisol Balance

Both zinc and magnesium are also suggested to stunt cortisol, a catabolic hormone. I’ve written about cortisol here. German researchers found that triathletes taking a magnesium supplement for four weeks maintained healthy cortisol levels at rest and after a triathlon, as compared to athletes taking a placebo. And Brazilian researchers also reported that subjects supplementing with zinc maintained healthy cortisol balance.

How and when to take?

I’ve been taking my own ZMA right before bed but I’m just learning now that it should be taken 1 hour before bedtime to maximize absorption.

Timing of supplements is important so I will heed to this advice and make the adjustment. I’ll keep you all updated on the latest episode of my podcast!

AMINI'S LEMONADE A+

Feeling a bit sluggish after meals?  Do you think that your stomach might need a lil help digesting that heavy meal you just consumed?  Well, no fear!  Try AMINI’S LEMONADE A+!  This bad-boy-juice is designed to jump-start your liver into producing adequate bile that your gallbladder will then distribute into your stomach.

Drink this concoction directly after eating and it will most definitely work its magic!

Warning: the first few times you drink this it might be incredibly bitter and acidic, what this means is that your body needs it even more.  The more this repels you, the more your body needs it.

AMINI’S LEMONADE

1/2 Cup of Organic Lemonade (sugar-free)

16 OZ of Spring Water (preferably chilled)

2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Sachet of Trader Joe’s 100% Ginger Mix OR 1 Sprinkle of Dehydrated Ginger Spice

INSTRUCTIONS:

1)      In a protein shaker bottle add the lemonade first, water next, the ACV, then the sachet of Ginger / Ginger herbal sprinkles.

2)      SHAKE THAT BAD BOY UP!!!!

3)      Drink with a straw so you don’t ruin the enamel on your teeth.

EXTRA CREDIT

To make this AMINI’S LEMONADE A+ you’ll need to add 1 capsule of Bromelain & 10 drops of Grapefruit seed extract.  These are 2 powerful digestive enzymes and biofilm destroyers that will help your body breakdown any strange pathogenic buildup.

I only drink AMINI’S LEMONADE A+ and let me tell you, this shit works.

Warning #2: Expect to feel emotional drinking this concoction every day after dinner.  The feelings of anger, guilt, shame, and sadness all live inside the liver.  If you feel emotional after drinking this for a few days IT IS A GOOD SIGN!!!  It means that it is WORKING.  Don’t give up.  Persevere through the pain because it is your body releasing some of the buried trauma that has accumulated over the years.

Amini SuperHuman Smoothie

As promised on my Podcast, here is my SuperHuman smoothie recipe that changed my life and I hope it changes your life too!

Ingredients:

1 x Cup of Organic Frozen Blueberries

1 x Cup of Organic Frozen Kale

1 x Cup of Spring Water

1 x Cup of Grassfed, Organic, Whole Fat Kefir

1 x Tablespoon of Manuka Honey (optional)

Instructions:
1) Place frozen blueberries & frozen kale in a blender.

2) Pour in spring water.

3) Pour in kefir.

4) BLEND THAT BITCH UP WELL!!!!!!!

Extra Credit

I recommend trying this smoothie for two weeks alongside intermittent fasting and a ketogenic will set that tummy right! This was, by far, the most effective way of getting my gut health under control.

Because I’m feeling like a generous KING (plus I’m too lazy to start a Patreon), here are a few add-ons that I do to make this SuperHuman Smoothie a Super-DuperHuman Smoothie!!!!!

SuperDuperHuman Smoothie Add-ons:

1/2 Cup of Frozen Broccoli Sprouts (homegrown)

1 x Scoop of Marine Collagen

1/2 x Teaspoon of Powdered Maca Root

1 x Tablespoon of Manuka Honey

2 x Powdered Lions Mane Mushroom Capsules

How To Tell If You Have A Bad Pineal Gland

The Pineal gland, aka The Third Eye, aka the Eye of Horus (if you nasty) is a tiny gland that sits in the middle of our brain and is intimately linked to our body’s perception of light. It’s like an odometer for light inside your brain. The body receives messages from the optic nerve in the eye, which then tells the Pineal gland to release hormones all throughout the body.

As you can see, the role of this gland is no joke. It not only helps the body discern between day and night, it also let’s us know what season we’re in, as well as whether the hours of sunlight are getting longer or shorter. It is also responsible for secreting certain hormones all throughout the day.

Did you know that the closer we get to the equator, the smaller the Pineal gland becomes in animals? This is because with more sun exposure and warmth near the equator, there are far less seasonal shifts. With less seasonal shifts, the Pineal gland doesn’t have to work as hard regulating light exposure. So the size of your Pineal gland might be relative to the extremity of the seasonal shifts you encounter.

How can you tell if you have a solid Pineal gland?

If you’re a “Morning Person,” and your body automatically wakes up whenever the sun rises, this is good news as it means you probably have a strong Pineal gland. Morning people tend to have stronger Pineal glands than those who sleep-in as the body is attuned to the natural light cycle of the surrounding world around us. One of the chemicals that the Pineal gland is responsible for releasing is melatonin, which is the sleep hormone that helps us fall asleep.

An added benefit of being an early riser is that cortisol levels tend to peak in the morning, which I find akin to nature’s way of encouraging us to be daytime creatures. We’re supposed to bounce around in sunlight. A solid circadian rhythm is a sign of a well functioning Pineal gland, while insomnia and poor sleep cycles tend to be signs of a poor functioning Pineal gland.

Is it normal for you to wake up feeling like you need more rest? Regardless of how many hours you’ve slept the night before? Is it all too easy for you to sleep-in till noon? Or maybe you don’t feel properly rested until you’ve slept-in till noon? If the sun comes up in the sky and you have no problem staying a Sleeping Beauty in the bed sheets then I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you might have a poor, or even worse, a calcified Pineal gland.

Healthy people get up when the sun is up, it’s that simple. The Pineal gland is responsible for releasing certain hormones at certain times and when it doesn’t secrete the correct chemicals at the proper times, we begin to encounter hormonal imbalances. An example of this hormonal imbalance is missing out on all that delicious cortisol we obtain from peaking in the morning. Cortisol is necessary for us to battle adrenal fatigue and it honestly makes us feel alive. Miss too many cortisol peaks in the morning in a row and you might begin to feel a hormonal shift. Always remember that your body is delicate, you have to pay attention to it.

Spiritual Awakening

Most importantly for us to remember is that the Pineal gland is responsible for our spiritual awakening. DMT, the natural occurring chemical structure that’s found naturally in humans and animals, is said to be responsible for hallucinating and understanding consciousness, is created in trace amounts where? You guessed it: the Pineal gland. So when you’re taking any type of hallucinogenic, chances are you’re tickling your Pineal gland.

When unlocked, it is said that the Pineal gland can bring about a deeper intuition. It is believed that our ability to discern propaganda and false media messaging is something we heavily rely on our Pineal gland to filter, why? Because it’s responsible for our intuition. It is our most primal instinctual connection to the outside world. It is your animal instinct. It is the sharpest of swords in the weaponry that is your brain. It is the most magical part of the brain.

So, if the Pineal gland is our direct link, our key in many ways, to the outside natural world through light regulation, what do you think would happen to society if you severed the connection to the Pineal gland? Through something like say, fluoridated water? What do you think we’ll begin to see in the world?

We’ll probably have a race of beings that are disconnected from nature. This disconnection from nature bleeds into a spiritual disconnection from their inner selves. People will begin listening to the background noise, and silencing the inside voice. People will become much easier to persuade if they’ve got a blocked intuition. If you’re spiritually disconnected from yourself, how can you possibly spiritually connect to any of the living beings around you, animal or human? This just sounds all too familiar with the world we’re living in today.

How to Decalcify your Pineal Gland?

1. Avoid Fluoride AND Chlorine in ALL Consumed Water

Stop drinking fluoride. Fluoride is almost always found in municipal water, as well as pesticides, and it accumulates in the Pineal gland more than in any other part of the body. This fluoride creates phosphate crystals that accumulate and create a hard shell around the Pineal gland called calcification:

Source: Scott Jeffrey Website

50% percent of the municipal drinking water around the globe is fluoridated. Interestingly enough however, most developed nations, do not fluoridate their water. Some countries that do not fluoridate their water are: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Iceland, and Italy.

Only 3% of the western European population consume fluoridated water. However, if you live in the USA and your source of water comes from a public water supply, there’s a 74% chance your water has fluoride in it. More people drink, bathe, swim and shower in fluoridated water in the United States than anywhere in the rest of the world combined. Scary!

Yes, fluoride is needed to strengthen tooth enamel, but the fluoride in the toothpaste we use twice a day will more than suffice the ability for us to protect our teeth. Think about it, if the fluoride is doing that to something like your bones, solidifying it and making it harder, can you imagine what it most be doing to the rest of your body? How about our stomach and its ability to digest? Or our lungs and their ability to breathe, which are made up of upwards of 83% water? How about our brains in particular? Did you know there’s actually no blood-brain barrier protecting our Pineal gland like there are other parts of our brain? Wild.

Chlorine is in the same class of chemicals as fluoride (halide anions) so it also has calcifying effects on the Pineal gland too. Unfortunately chlorine is found in virtually all of our public water supply too, so it’s always best to source all water from a fluoride free water filter.

Leave no stone unturned when it comes to avoiding fluoride at all costs. When you clean your teeth, don’t even allow the tap water to touch your lips to rinse, not even for a second. Get a cup of purified water or filtered water and use this to rinse instead.

If you’re boiling pasta, potatoes, vegetables, or anything that requires a water absorption method, use purified or filtered water with fluoride removed. Yes it’s a hassle but you must stay vigilant. This is a marathon and not a sprint. You’re changing lifestyle habits for the rest of your life. This isn’t something you can turn back to once you’ve started because you WILL notice the difference.

Be conscious of Spring water as it still has naturally occurring fluoride. Sometimes Spring water gives me fluorosis flare ups in my shoulder and I know it’ll have fluoride, that’s how sensitive I have become to fluoridated water. The more vigilant and stricter you are, the sooner you’ll begin to notice the positive effects on your Pineal gland.

2. Drink Beverages With Less Fluoride

We all know how I feel about coffee and I’ll write about that another time. We should all be consciously aware that there is fluoride in our beverages too. Instant teas and teas grown in Asian tend to be harvested in soil that has higher levels of fluoride, thus always beware when drinking tea beverages and try to buy from African or European countries that have less fluoride in them.

I’m a huge fan of Green Tea, which unfortunately has the highest level of fluoride of all the teas. It’s best to switch to white tea or yerba mate, which both have significantly less fluoride in them. I liked white tea or yerba mate tea during the initial Pineal flush that I started but I switched back to green tea after finding one that didn’t give me joint pain from suspected fluorosis. Through much trial and error with many different teas, I now only drink Emperor’s Cloud Mist from Starbucks, as this one causes almost no bodily grief.

3. Iodine In Seaweed Flushes Out Fluoride

Ridding the Pineal gland of fluoride, according to Dr. Mark Sircus, is done with iodine. When the body consumes high levels of iodine, it displaces fluoride from cell receptors and flushes the fluoride out of the body via urine. 

Our bodies can’t make iodine so we must get it from our food meals or supplements.  As expected, it’s estimated that as many as 74% of Americans are deficient in the crucial chemical element of iodine in the body.   

The most superior dietary source of iodine is seaweed.  Specifically, sea veggies like wakame, nori, kombu (kelp), arame, and dulse, which are the richest edible sources of iodine. 

Keep in mind that 1 tablespoon of dried dulse flakes contains about 750 mcg of iodine.  The daily recommended amount is about 150 mcg, so if you decide to up your iodine intake, do so slowly and build your way up so you don’t overwhelm your body.

Detoxing from fluoride using iodine may trigger symptoms like headaches, agitation, and palpitations as fluoride is released.  To minimize those effects, it’s important to work with a natural health specialist and listen to your body. Sleep when you need to. Hydrate when necessary. Sometimes the saltiness can be dehydrating so be sure to keep up the purified water to flush out the fluoride.

4. Exercise = Brain Blood Flow = Pineal Flush

Have you ever gone a long time without exercise, and then done an intense cardio workout, only to find yourself having a throbbing migraine headache afterwards? That headache, my dear, is blood circulating to your Pineal gland. Have you ever noticed how this type of headache becomes light sensitive? That’s because your body is pushing out endotoxins that have been sitting on you Pineal gland, collecting all sorts of unmentionables since the last time you exercised.

This is why daily exercise is crucial for spiritual health, it pushes blood to that part of the brain that’s deepest and most difficult to gain access to. Have you ever noticed how calm you become after a cardio exercise? Be it a yoga class? Or a swim? Or a jog? That’s your body emitting alpha brainwaves, and those brainwaves are coming from where? You guessed it, the Pineal gland.

This is why breath control in yoga and swimming is so crucial, it pushes oxygen and blood to the Pineal gland. This is why I exercise everyday. I love that feeling of a flushed Pineal gland. I love the feeling of my eyes getting sensitive to light at night, knowing I’ve properly exhausted myself that day. When I’m sensitive to light at night, I know I’m more connected to my deeper animal instincts.

5. Shower Using Seaweed Based Soap

As a lifelong swimmer, the post-practice shower is a crucial part of my after post-workout ritual. If seaweed is good for removing chlorine and fluoride from inside of our bodies, it must be good for removing those harsh chemicals from on top of our bodies, right? Well yes, it turns out to be true.

I’ve started using The Seaweed Bath Company’s Hydrating Cleansing Body Wash - Eucalyptus and Peppermint but honestly just go to Whole Foods or natural drug store and ask for a seaweed based body wash or soap. I’ve noticed a huge difference in my body’s ability to keep fluoride at bay when I consistently use seaweed based body wash or soap every time.

I’ve also noticed my skin is much softer, which means I’m winning my battle with hard water. I love the way my body feels slimy afterward, knowing that the iodine has displaced the fluoride and chlorine on my skin.

I then finish by drying off and lathering my whole body with this amazing coconut collagen oil called Tropikaux. If you don’t have Tropikaux, coconut oil will suffice. Tropikaux is my biggest beauty secret. If you’re lucky to have read this far and uncovered this gem of information. Unfortunately, this product isn’t available online yet but I’m working very hard with the owner to try and get it up. As witchy as it sounds, you can only buy it on the streets of SOHO in New York City.

If you’re in NYC and you want this beauty secret, Tropikaux is sold every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on W Houston, between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street. It’s sold out of a Zaddy Earth booth in front of The Church of St. Anthony of Padua.

If you’re really want inga bottle, comment below, DM me on Instagram or Twitter and I’ll talk to the owner.

6. Be Patient

Removing fluoride from the Pineal gland is an ongoing process that is going to take much longer than just a few days. Be diligent with consistency and listen to your body.

Be aware of fluoride and chlorine in your environment, and realize it might be in places you didn’t even realize existed… cleaning supplies tend to be the biggest culprit. Be vigilant about removing those toxic chemicals from your environment.

If you’re a swimmer like me and avoiding chlorine and fluoride is impossible, compensate with raising iodine in your diet with seaweed consumption, and use seaweed based body washes and soaps in the shower to minimize marinating in ugly toxic chemicals.

Conclusion

When my Pineal gland is prosperous and functioning, my whole body feels incredible and I feel alive. ALL my cylinders are firing and all the right hormones are being released at the right times. My libido is healthy and my sex hormones, monitored by my Pineal gland, are balanced. The fresh testosterone my body releases in healthy amounts is done so at the correct times due to my strong functioning Pineal gland inside my brain.

These are just some of the many things I do to maintain a healthy hormonal balance via Pineal gland de-calcification.

The Importance of The Gut-Brain Axis

Research on the human microbiome has only been developing within the past 15 years, which shows that western medicine is still going to great lengths to understand how much of a connection there is between overall health and the microbes in our stomach. My goal is to teach people how to balance the chemicals in your stomach/gut/microbiome so you can feel better, live stronger, and be happier. The first part is understanding that our stomach is an incredibly important and very complicated organ in the first place.

Have you heard of the gut-brain axis? New scientific evidence is suggesting that there’s a definite link between the human microbiome (gut health) and mood disorders.

Imbalances in gut microbiota are found to be associated with more bodily disorders including: inflammatory diseases (Clemente et al., 2018), metabolic diseases (Bouter et al., 2017), irritable bowel syndrome (Mayer et al., 2014), and most importantly of all neuropsychiatric disorders (Sharon et al., 2016).

Have you ever noticed how people with a stomach ache are always irritable? Nobody with an upset stomach is ever in a good mood. When our stomachs hurt, everything hurts, and everything feels wrong and nothing feels right. Think back to a time in your life when you got a stomach flu, or food poisoning, it can sometimes feel like you’re dying.

This is how I felt when I was training for Rio 2016, I had stomach pains around the clock and my mood suffered immensely. And when I did more research into how many micro-organisms live inside our gut, it all started to make more sense, and I recognized that there’s a serious relationship between the gut and brain, called The Gut-Brain Axis.

Research has shown that the human intestinal tract contains between 10 to 100 trillion microbes. That’s roughly 10 times greater than the amount of human cells (Bäckhed et al., 2005), which means there’s a lot going on in our stomachs at the biochemical level than we ever realized before. We’re all just walking chemical equations, and inside our stomach houses more microbes than what make up our entire body, by roughly 10 times in fact.

The human microbiota - which means all the micro-organisms living inside your stomach - contain 100 times the number of genes than that of the human genome (Bäckhed et al., 2005; Grice and Segre, 2012). So, my dear, there’s are a lot going on between the entrance of your mouth, all the way to your bootyhole. Or if you want to keep it classy like Miss Frazzle from The Magic School bus: your “valve”:

The microbiota make-up in our stomach changes a lot during during the process of mitosis and growth (Clemente et al., 2012), and gut microbiota can be influenced by so many variables such as: genes (Kurilshikov et al., 2017), environment (Chen et al., 2018b), diet (Patman, 2015), antibiotics (Bokulich et al., 2016), prebiotics (Preidis and Versalovic, 2009), and mode of delivery (Dominguez-Bello et al., 2010).

Reducing certain microbes producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) was observed in inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases, and an imbalance in gut microbiota was associated with higher levels of inflammation (Clemente et al., 2018). Furthermore, it has been proven that obesity is associated with a low ratio of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes bacteria in the stomach specifically, which are 2 out of the 5 predominant bacterial phyla in the human intestinal tract; interestingly enough, a higher ratio of Bacteriodetes to Firmicutes was seen after weight loss (Ley et al., 2006).

Like I said, we’re all walking chemical equations and depending on what’s happening inside your stomach will determine the quality of life you have. I often wonder if there’s a relationship between gut bacteria diversity and the speed of one’s metabolism. Is there a probiotic make-up that will allow people to be more susceptible to maintaining a speedy metabolism rather than a slow one? Research is starting to suggest this and I believe I have the secret to this.

My next blog post will be about my favorite probiotic products, and how I regrew my gut flora to change my entire gastrointestinal tract on the cellular level. It took me 3 months, but I finally regained my everyday optimal health, kept the chemicals in my stomach in check and balanced, all achieved through all natural nutritional supplementation, and changing my relationship with food to that of viewing meals as medicine.

Why I'm Still Swimming

I’m still swimming because I believe I have yet to swim my fastest race. My performance at Rio 2016 was humiliating. I flopped at the biggest sporting event in the world, and I for one would like a do-over.

2015 was a lightening year for my swimming career, and all was working extremely well for me leading up to 2016 before I got sick. “Sick” is an understatement, I got incredibly ill. My issues were gastrointestinal and my digestive system completely gave up on me. I knew something was very wrong with my body, but no doctors were ever able to diagnose my pain and nobody could tell what was wrong with me.

What was supposed to be the most exciting time of my life, training for something I’d worked my entire life for, had turned into a living and walking nightmare. I hate that I’m even sharing this with you because it paints me as such a victim, and maybe that’s why I’ve gone so long without sharing this part of my story, because I want to remain seen as a strong and resilient person, but this is honestly what happened.

Training for an Olympics is no joke, it can be very serious and very stressful. My body giving up on me added a whole new layer of complications to the training process. I would cry driving to swim practice. I would cry driving home from swim practice. I would cry because I couldn’t even finish swim practices. I would cry out of frustration for falling short of my full potential, not once or twice a week, but every single day. I would cry out of frustration with a lack of understanding, truly understanding, what was happening to me and my body. I would cry because I knew something was incredibly wrong, very very wrong, but everybody around me was saying I was fine.

I was repeatedly told by many qualified professionals that nothing was wrong with me, and without a diagnosis to fix the problem, an entire new layer of misery was added to the training process.

This isn’t how training for an Olympic games race is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be serious, yes, but more importantly than that, it’s supposed to be fun, but I was having no fun at all. It was one of the darkest and most depressing times of my life and I’m so glad and grateful that it’s all behind me.

Anyway, long story long, I eventually got fixed by an acupuncturist, but by this late stage of the game it was May, and I only had 2 months left to prepare for the Olympics. I had run out of time and that was why my race was so abysmal: a lack of preparation due to dysfunctional bowels.

Fast-forward 3 years later, I still haven’t found a doctor that could properly diagnose and fix me, so I did what all champions do, I found ways to fix myself. My coach at the Rio Olympics, Sandra Burrow always told me: “A winner finds a way, and a loser makes excuses,” that perfectly sums up the equation of sports. I found a way to fix myself through alternative medicine, but I also got a lot of help along the way. I’d like to give a special shout out to Daniele Albert, my former trainer at Texas A&M, whom was a supreme source of information on how to heal my gut through food. I now see food as a life source, as medicine, and it taught me how to listen to my body after every meal so I can learn how to get to a place of everyday optimal health.

It wasn’t an easy journey, one that took years, tons of research, reading scholarly sources, venturing into the health and wellness blogs, and immense amounts of trial and error, but I finally fixed myself and I’m never looking back.

A big part of why I want to do Tokyo 2020 is that I’d like to help people who are living or who have lived through similar experiences like I did leading up to Rio 2016. I see myself as a valuable resource of information for people who want to get their gut health back in check. Going through the misery and pain of my past gut health issues isn’t going to be all for nothing, my purpose this time round is to pay it forward and help others who are living through these digestive issues. I want to share with the world how I fixed my gut health issues, reclaimed my life and vitality, and allow people to follow me on the Tokyo 2020 journey along the way.

I’m going to swim fast next year, I can feel it. I hope you can all accept my invitation to join me on this exciting journey and incorporate some healthy lifestyle changes into your daily routines as well!

Peace and blessings,

Amini