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Podcast 058: Allergies and Immune Support

Many people don’t understand food intolerance, and often confuse it with food allergy. Because the symptoms can be vague and not life threatening, adult sufferers are sometimes not taken seriously or worse, discounted as hypochondriacs. Watch for gluten (wheat and possibly all grains), homogenized dairy, and all GMO products.

An allergy occurs when your body has an abnormal reaction to something that you’ve breathed, eaten, touched or been injected with. The resulting symptoms can be (but are not limited to) itchy eyes, sneezing, runny nose, wheezing, coughing, skin rash, or upset stomach, diarrhea. A severe allergic reaction requires immediate medical attention.

Podcast 058: Allergies and Immune Support

Scott Paton: Welcome back, everybody, you’re listening to the Life Enthusiast co-op podcast Restoring Vitality to You and to the Planet. I’m co-host Scott Paton along with Martin Pytela. Hey, Martin. How are you doing today?

Martin Pytela: Doing good. Spring is upon us.

Scott Paton: Spring is upon us. And with screen comes allergies. You and I were discussing allergies, and you’ve spent a lot of your life combating allergies. And I’m really curious as to hear your story in and how you were successful with it.

Martin Pytela: Yeah. My allergy story is essentially interwoven with my getting sick and then getting better. Um, my allergies started, I was about thirty five, and all of a sudden I started getting itchy eyes,

Scott Paton: and you never had that before.

Martin Pytela: No, my original mercury poisoning, was when I was twenty five. And all of those back problems and the physiology and all of that falling apart that was unfolding and about ten years into it, not only my back was shambles. And, my athletic ability was shot. I was into allergies. At that time, I was still eating the the Standard American Diet. You know, I was eating cooked food, and I was going to restaurants and all of that normal stuff. And

Scott Paton: You were enjoying the typical North American Diet

Martin Pytela: Lifestyle. All of it. I drank some beer. Not much. I drink some wine, not much, but I really enjoyed the cooked meals. I was cooking, too, and I was pretty good at setting up a dinner, doing the roasted duck dinner, rouladen or some beef stew or you name it. You know, I’ve done them all …

Scott Paton: nice. It was delicious …

Martin Pytela: My wife really enjoyed my company then. She had a guy who actually cooked the odd dinner. You know, we would invite guests and I’d get into it and cook dinners. Oh, gosh. With my Central European background, I had great cooking ideas.

Scott Paton: Right? So you were a gourmet cook.

Martin Pytela: I was. So anyway, there it was: one spring it was just a little itchy eyes for maybe two weeks. The next year, it was so bad, I was going to just gouge my eyes out. It was just so awful. It just was impossible. Couldn’t couldn’t stand. At that point, I was still just your regular guy. I went to the doctor, and, the doctor said, well, here’s Sudafed. And I asked, Well, is that going to like cure me? And he said, no, but it’s going to make the life livable. And I said, Well, how long am I going to take it for? He said, for the rest of your life. That was the first kick where I finally was starting to clue in. And, that summer somebody introduced me to blue green algae, and that was the first twinge. That was the first turn around of any sort that happened in my life. All of a sudden, I started waking up to the other side, you know? It took me a long time to understand, because I started studying naturopathy. I started studying natural health, and all of that took me probably five years to get a clue. So I spent five seasons very miserable. I would just have to take antihistamines and, either make myself really sleepy or make myself feel miserable.

Scott Paton: So when we’re talking about your allergies, we’re not talking about the odd little sniffle here and there, right?

Martin Pytela: No. It was debilitating. If I wasn’t medicated, I was unable to keep my fingers out of my eye sockets. I’m sure there’s a few people that can feel your pain.

Martin Pytela: Oh, there are many out there. I mean, you can see all these people with the Aerio and Zyrtec and every sort of a thing that they need to take. Well, anyway, Sudafed did it for me, of course, but I only took it for, maybe two boxes. And then I realized I need to research something different. I found homeopathics. I was able to control my symptoms with homeopathics, but that was only controlling symptoms. It was not really curing anything. Well, I think about three or four years into it, I finally clued in that it was the congestion of the liver that’s causing the allergies. Essentially what happens is, as your gut decays, your small intestine becomes permeable, The leaky gut, it starts letting through bits of protein that shouldn’t be getting through into your bloodstream. And sure enough and slow enough, it just clogs their liver and limit your liver’s ability to detox what’s there. And that will cause ultimately the demise of the immune system.

Scott Paton: So that’s really what allergies are. Allergies are [caused by] your immune system is not working correctly.

Martin Pytela: Well, your immune system is attacking stuff that’s arriving, and it’s confused about it. And it’s attacking the tissues in the body that look like the other bits that are arriving.

Scott Paton: Okay, so in other words, we have this immune system. We have these red and white corpuscles in our blood, and they’re trained or programmed to go after certain things in the blood to keep our blood clean, right? When there’s stuff in the blood that shouldn’t be there. There’s stuff in the blood that should be there. And it’s kind of like they’re getting mixed signals because there’s all this stuff kind of interfering. So all of a sudden, instead of just going after the cold virus or the flu or whatever, maybe it’s going after stuff that it shouldn’t and we get this reaction where our nose is running, our eyes are running, we’re sneezing or coughing, we’re miserable and all the rest because our body is in fact kind of attacking itself by mistake, right?

Martin Pytela: The image that comes up for me is this ten year old kid at a birthday party trying to hit a pinata with a baseball bat. It’s that sort of thing. The immune system becomes confused and all of a sudden it’s just thrashing around like crazy.

Scott Paton: That’s a good image. I like that one. So it’s not hopeless?

Martin Pytela: No. So we need to untie the eyes of the poor boy, and he’ll whack it in a single stroke.

Scott Paton: Right? Oh, a good one.

Martin Pytela: There are two steps. One is you need to cleanse the liver. And the other is you need to restore proper function in the digestive system because the permeable bowel is allowing under-digested proteins to slip through. And it’s challenging the liver, the main filtration organ to not be able to do its job correctly.

Scott Paton: So step one would be fixing the leaky gut.Step two would be cleaning the liver. Because if you clean the liver and then the leaky gut just fills it up again, you’re back where you started from.

Martin Pytela: Right! So you need both. I mean, it’s the same thing as if you ask me, should I fix my canoe or bail my canoe? Well, the point is, if you’re on water, which we are, we are living, you need to continue bailing while you’re trying to get to your destination while you’re trying to fix the leak. You cannot stop eating until the thing is fixed. Or you cannot stop eating until your liver is clean. Exactly. You’re saying it right. The process should include intestinal restoration. And for for that I know of nothing better, really, than the Exsula Strata Flora. It’s proved itself time and again. And if you go over the list of ingredients that are in it, you’ll find, for instance, that there’s Slippery Elm in it. Slippery Elm is a herb that will soothe the entire digestive system, and then the other one that’s in there is silymarin. Silymarin is an extract from the blessed thistle or common thistle. It’s the milk thistle or blessed thistle. It’s not the most ordinary thistle that’s spoiling the meadows in America, but it’s a European relative.

Anyway, the thistle or the active ingredient silymarin will stimulate and cleanse the liver. And the other one that really works is rosemary. Just your basic ordinary rosemary. So folks that want to go the self made route. Just make tea from milk thistle and rosemary. It’ll work. I still have the tinctures of both here on my shelf, and I keep stimulating my liver from time to time. Just because.

Scott Paton: So when you were working on getting over your allergy, How long? So you realized that you need to fix the leaky gut and cleanse the liver. How long before you started to notice a significant difference? I know that everybody is different, but I’m curious when someone’s done something, what their response time is. What’s their reaction is because it always gives me an idea of what I can expect. Maybe shorter, maybe longer. But at least it gives me an idea to judge how I’m doing, right?

Martin Pytela: Yeah. I think if I knew then what I know now, it might have taken me one or two seasons to deal with it all. In my case, it took me maybe five years because, I kept trying things that didn’t work. I did some really unusual things. Life is so full of serendipities. For instance, I was using, oil of oregano as an anti infection tool. And so I went into a health food store. And I bought a bottle of what I thought it was Oil of Oregano. Except I bought an Oil of Rosemary. Interestingly enough, I thought, well, I guess since I have it, I need to look up what it’s for. And then I’m reading, oh, yeah, it stimulates the liver. So I started taking it. You know, you’re supposed to take one drop while I was taking about eight drops in my morning drink, and, that would actually keep me out of trouble. That was enough to allow me to last a whole day without actually sneezing and sniffling and all of that.

Scott Paton: good for you.

Martin Pytela: Yeah. So I would say to anybody you have one or two years.

Scott Paton: So you would get the Strata Flora, Take it as as directed, and you’ll notice you’ll probably feel a bit better this year. A lot better next year.

Martin Pytela: I would say this: if you are an allergy, suffer, get Strata Flora now and do at least one bottle and possibly two and maybe three.

Scott Paton: How long this is?

Martin Pytela: One bottle will last about a month.

Scott Paton: Oh, I see. So just do it for the next three months, and then you’re done then and then next year in the spring, do it again.

Martin Pytela: Possibly if you feel the symptoms coming on your not clean enough. But what I’m expecting is that by the time the season rolls over, you’re done. You’re clean.And then, of course, you should probably just spend the rest of your life eating better. You know, the stuff I didn’t say, of course, is the at some point, I think it was about thirty seven or thirty eight. I decided I couldn’t continue and we switched. We just went vegetarian. We went first into vegetarian, then vegan, then completely raw food. It was a conversion. We’re not as strict anymore. Our cultural background forces us to enjoy things like Friday night pizza or whatever. You know, But I keep thinking the eighty twenty rule is good enough for me. As long as I stay ahead of it, that’s good enough.

Scott Paton: Well, and I think, too, if you evaluate where you are in your health and where you’re going and if you’re continuing to be healthy or getting healthier versus getting weaker and not so healthy, it makes a big difference, right? And if you’re going to McDonald’s every day, and if you cut that out to once every six months then you’ll immediately see a big improvement in your health, I’m sure.

Martin Pytela: Yes. Actually, I don’t mind McDonald’s at all. They offer nice salads. They really do.

Scott Paton: But you’re one of the few people that goes in there and actually orders the salad. Martin, Big Mac, the Whopper oops, wrong company. Sorry.

Martin Pytela: Wrong, but I mean, I’ve gone to Wendy’s, and I ordered their baked potato and their salad and then enjoyed a properly combined decent meal. You can do it.

Scott Paton: When I go to Wendy’s I order their taco salad, and I just love it. I think that the majority of people they go in there, they’re the way I was in my teenage years, and they’re just salivating on getting their hand on a Big Mac. I’m not going to give them the benefit of the doubt that you’re giving them. sorry.

Martin Pytela: Okay. I just wanted to say that we don’t really need to slam these fast food chains because they really do offer choices. You, the consumer, have the choice

Scott Paton: and you have to make the choice. And I guess the fact that they are offering them and continuing to offer them shows that people are making better choices and are making a bit of an effort, so that’s good. Awesome. So for all the allergy sufferers out there, there’s hope.

Martin Pytela: Absolutely. It’s in the liver. Honestly, I promise. It’s the place. Liver is a funny organ. It stores all of the repressed anger, all of the unexpressed frustration. So don’t stuff it or else you’ll be a depressed person later. And second, allow the liver to be cleansed. And for that, you need to stimulate it with the milk thistle. And you need to patch up the holes in your gut. You need to patch up the leaky gut. If you have allergies, you have a leaky gut. There is a direct correlation.

Scott Paton: And if you have allergies, that’s a symptom that you’re heading down the wrong direction on your life path. Because you have other problems later on.

Martin Pytela: Yes, that’s just the tip of an iceberg, again. If you have allergies that are coming up on the surface, there’s a whole pile of stuff going under the surface that’s even worse.

Scott Paton: So deal with it now because you want to have a light at long, happy, vital, energetic life. And you can have it right. You’re living proof of that, Martin.

Martin Pytela: Yeah, I’m actually definitely looking better now that I was looking ten years ago. And, I’m definitely feeling better now than I was feeling twenty years ago.

Scott Paton: Awesome. Alright, well, everybody, you’ve been listening to the Life Enthusiast co-op podcast. And, Martin, if somebody wanted to, talk to you some more about allergies, how would they get a hold of you?

Martin Pytela: They can call the company number. That’s 1-866-543-3388. They can try my direct line at 775-299-4661. And they can, of course, read to their heart’s content on www.life-enthusiast.com. And they can even listen to more of our exciting podcasts at lifeenthusiast.podomatic.com.

Scott Paton: And I just wanted to say, Martin, that we should tell everybody to check out the site because we’ve got a brand new design that’s up and running and it just looks. I am very enthusiastic about it.

Martin Pytela: Well, thank you for listening to us.This is Life Enthusiast, Restoring Vitality to You and to the Planet. Until the next time.