Photo by Gibson Claire McGuire Regester.

Thanksgiving is one week away. Are you ready for the family and the feasting? Do you need some good reading materials? Kill two birds with one stone and check out what we’re reading this week on WellWire.

Food, Inc is a movie that will change your level of awareness regarding the modern food system and then change the way you eat. There are many similarities between this documentary’s message and Upton Sinclair’s famous novel, The Jungle. We cannot continue to ignore how our food is grown, processed and delivered to our tables. We must bring awareness back to buying and eating food. Speaking of, do you know your moo IQ? Test your beef industry smarts with our quiz.

How do you prepare Thanksgiving for vegetarian or vegan guests? You cook to impress. There are some amazing sites out there. VegWeb.com has a whole page devoted to the Thanksgiving dinner. One of our vegan friends recommend a cookbook Vegonomicon, whose tasty recipes will probably garner attention from the carnivores at your table too. So double those recipes.

When you clean up that last piece of pumpkin pie and the Thanksgiving TV specials are done, it’s time to clean up. Check out our post on how to choose or make your own all-natural cleaners. And keep those harmful and harsh cleaners away from your family! Use electrolyzed water instead. For now, these water electrolyzing machines are expensive and confined to industrial use, but they may be available in the average home one day.

What the fish!? Psoriasis is a skin disorder characterized by an accelerated replication and death of skin cells. The psoriasis lesion is often described as having a silvery white scaling appearance.  One treatment that has provided some relief to psoriasis sufferers is letting fish feast on the over abundance of dead skin cells. These little helpers are called “Doctor fish” and can be found in a spa in Turkey. Gross/awesome, right?

Here are eight tips for a Thanksgiving day that won’t leave you bursting at the waist. There are simple things you can do to change the mindless over-indulgence that occurs during the is day of feasting. Give thanks to your body and take care of it this holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving from WellWire! We wish you safe travels and happy times with your loved ones.

Dr. Gibran Ramos completed his six year training and internship in Naturopathic and Chinese Medicine at National College of Natural Medicine. Dr. Ramos helps patients transform their lives and optimize their well-being at a private practice in Portland, Oregon.

Photo by tambako the jaguar.

Last night I watched an episode on NBC’s The Doctors. Don’t know the show? It stars four doctors with different specialties, each discussing popular health care topics.  It was my first time watching it.

One of the topics for discussion was whether vitamin B12 injections have any effect.  The answer from the panel was a quick, “No, the energy increase is simply a placebo effect.”

I was seriously surprised at the oversimplification and misinformation. The comment was essentially false and misleading.  In an effort to provide valid health information, here’s the deal with vitamin B12:

Vitamin B12 is important for nerve and blood health among a host of crucial biochemistry.  The best dietary sources are from animal products such as meat (especially liver), fish, eggs and dairy.  As as side note, no plant foods can be relied on as a sole source of vitamin B12, If you are vegan I strongly suggest supplementing.  I say sole source because you would have to eat several pounds of specific plants a day to get close to the daily requirement.  There are bacteria in the colon which are capable of producing B12, but their location makes it difficult for absorption (hence why many vegetarian animals eat their own feces such as rabbits etc). The fermented soy, spirulina, seaweed, algae and nori products don’t actually contain B12, but an inactive analogue which does not serve the needs of an omnivore’s physiology nor lower MMA levels (test to determine biological activity of B12).  Of course artificially fortified foods remain an option for those choosing this path.

As a side note, human feces is loaded with B12 due to these bacteria.  Researchers found a group of Iranian vegans who showed no signs of B12 deficiency – it was discovered that the reason behind this was that they at vegetables fertilized with, you guessed it, human feces and then did not sufficiently wash the produce.  I suppose that this remains a viable alternative (no please, I’m only joking).  Anyhow, I digress.

The body has the capacity to store a few years worth of vitamin B12 (mostly in the liver, which is why Pâté is such a good source of B12 – bon appetit).  This is probably why the panel made the comment about the vitamin B12 shot having no effect on the body as in theory it should all be there.

However:

It is generally not the lack of B12 in our diet that leads to a functional decrease in B12 levels, it is the assimilation. Vitamin B12 has a very complex absorption process, here are a few details.

1. It starts in the stomach where adequate levels of stomach acid are required.
2. Next, a protein complex called intrinsic factor (IF) is secreted from the stomach lining to bind to the B12.
3. This B12-IF complex is finally absorbed at the end of the small intestine (ileum).

Each of these steps must be fully intact in order to guarantee B12 delivery into the system, here’s a short list of the most common reasons that they may be inhibited.

• The casual use of over the counter antacids and increasing prescription of acid inhibiting drugs.
• Poor eating habits lead to a functional decrease in stomach acid output from the stomach (that feeling of being full/bloated after a protein heavy meal).

Here are a few signs & symptoms which can be associated with B12 deficiency :

• Low energy, chronic fatigue
• Mental fog, forgetfulness, memory loss
• Depression
• Pernicious anemia, megaloblastic anemia
• Numbness, tingling in hands or feet
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Neurological damage
• Gastritis

B12 functional deficiency is quite common especially because high stress depletes this vitamin. B12 shots CAN be an enormous impact for someone who has had a long term deficiency or someone who has problems with absorption.  The shot is not the long term solution however, healing the G.I. tract and ensuring all the mechanisms for absorption are intact is the long term solution.  In the meantime it can provide a drastic improvement in energy and mental function. The idea with the shot is to bypass all those steps needed for absorption from the diet and simply inject directly into the tissue.  The wise approach would be to use these in the interim and get down to business and fix the actual problem.

Video on how-to make chicken liver pâté

Dr. Nishant Rao is a co-founder of WellWire.com. He is a well-traveled naturopathic doctor and new father, practicing an integrative approach to create wellness in and around Los Angeles. Become a patient or discover his practice.