Natasha Campbell-McBrideCritiques

There are many reviews out there in respect to this book Gut And Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD. Within these there’s a kaleidoscope of different point of views in respect to what their personal opinions/anecdotes have been.

One thing that one particular individual stated that the tone of the book seemed like the author offered a ‘miracle’ cure. That was never something that seemed for me to be the case. A treatment, by definition, is not a cure. If after conquering whatever disease it might be, if an individual opts to stop this ‘treatment’ its very likely that disease will crop up once more.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride grounds the data provided in this book with an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence. Anyone looking for quick ‘miracles’ is sadly mistaken.

This book can help people, but its hard work – a lot of hard work. There are no guarantees however.

The human body is a constellations of systems within systems all performing a synergistic dance that makes us who we are. When portions of this system is out of balance – even just one ­aspect – there can be quite the detrimental side effects thereafter.

Given that, this book has helped a large amount of people that have opted to follow the diet/data provided here.

The data information provided in this book, especially when coupled with ‘The Paleo Approach’ By Sarah Balantyne Ph.D. helped me immensely.

Am just mentioning Balantyne’s book for those looking for more research into diet and how that can help one overcome [or at least move into the right direction] the countless diseases plaguing individuals nowadays.

As a person who has had Ulcerative Colitis, a sound diet has been a life saver for me, literally. This hasn’t come easy.

The title of this book doesn’t mention UC outright, however, the disease is definitely mentioned in the book, and more importantly, the issue of ‘leaky gut’ is tackled rather incisively. This is important because gut issues are present in all unhealthy people. When you look at disease from this angle, there is a lot of knowledge to be had for those seeking to why dis-ease is as wide spread as it is, as well as what are some of the things one can do to begin moving forward.

Getting back to a previous point, the diet component is not easy. It is possible however. If such wasn’t the case, so many people wouldn’t be giving this particular review and sharing anecdotal data of their successes and such.

For me personally, the sugar component was the hardest thing to overcome. Overcoming this factor is absolutely imperative for people to overcome if one wants regain their health.

Sugar is absolutely widespread in our culture these days, and it causes way more problems that can be listed here. As Campbell-Mcbride elucidates the average western person consumes about 160-200 lbs of sugar a year. Not only that, but sugar itself fuels Candida, and worse, cancer. And that’s just one component in the diet. The author mentions countless ones that cause deleterious issues.

Its important to know what causes dis-ease in our modern society, and this book does a particularly poignant job in shedding light into many confusing aspects of diet.

This book had been recommended to me years ago, and made the mistake of not getting it. If you have been interested in this book, don’t make the same mistake that was done by me. If you’re already here, you’ve probably heard of the work done by the author and whatnot, and are familiar with some of the progress that has taken place by people that have been willing to approach this with an open mind.

After being hospitalized countless times [almost every other year [and sometimes consecutive years ongoing] for many years and sometimes staying for weeks], and having been out of remission with UC for years at a time, something had to be done.

The solutions outlined by doctors were just not cutting it for me. Nothing was working. This was why it was easy to realize that big changes had to be implemented if a healthy life was going to be attainable for me again.

This book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, as well as Balantyne’s book The Paleo Approach were very instrumental in me regaining my health. There are many options out there. Am just putting light to the information in hopes that perhaps in the future this help can help others as its helped me.

This is just speaking from personal experience. Take that for what it’s worth.

Topics such as the gut, the immune system, gut flora [and all its components] as well as even the gut-brain connection are all written about quite well. Toxins of all kinds are also broken down so to speak.

Within the recommended diet portion of the book, the most important and beneficial dietary changes that can be had are spoken about at length, as well as the top influences that help the immune system, as well as the ones that damage it, are also touched upon.

There really is a lot of vital information to be had by this book. The strength of it lies in how it allows the reader to realize the importance of gut health is, given the little amount of information coming out from the medical establishment.

In any case, there is extensive information for people whether they are at a beginner level, or come from a more experienced area in relation to these topics.

This is the type of information you wish everyone within the medical fields [and all education for that matter] were exposed too. That’s fantasy thinking however.

In the real world, the individual needs to do everything he can to regain their health, and its their responsibility to do that. This book helps you along that journey.

As mentioned before, a mistake was made by me years ago in not getting the book when it was extremely recommended by a dear friend of mine who had many health issues they conquered. Don’t make the same mistake.

If you’re interested, by all means go ahead. You will not regret it.

Parts of the book are based on discredited research by Andrew Wakefield. Other parts lack any sort of justification -- the references at the back really don't back up what the author is suggesting, making me wonder on what scientific basis she's basing her recommendations. When she provides citations for some of her claims, often the papers references have nothing to do with what she has written about (providing a citation about methylmecury when she is discussing ethylmercury, for example). Her justifications for regular enemas are that people elsewhere in the world were doing them in centuries ago. By that logic, bloodletting has been getting a bad wrap and should be reintroduced as an effective treatment.

And there's the fact that the author's web site offers "GAPS certification" for a fee for $1000 or more. If you're looking for a more science-based book about your gut, I would suggest Gut by Guilia Enders. It's better researched and a better read from a much more creditable source.½

Not the easiest read because of layout and roughness, but stellar in truth and ability to help heal!

This is an invaluable book, which has provided me with essential information.

The author, Dr. Campbell-McBride, is a specialist in the gut. She states that all diseases stem from an imbalanced gut, The present epidemic in children of ADHD/ADD, dyspraxia (extreme clumsiness), dyslexia, autism, allergies, etc. etc. all stem from a gut disorder/compromised immune system.

She terms this gut disorder “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”, or GAPS. Those suffering from schizophrenia also belong to this group, as do those such as myself with auto-immune ailments. (In actual fact probably most of us have an imbalanced gut in this day and age.)

The book tackles the problems involved in great detail, Campbell-McBride explains how our gut flora is damaged by antibiotics, other drugs, including the Pill, diet (most people these days have an atrocious diet and suffer from malnutrition), bottle feeding as a baby, pollution, etc. etc. We inherit our gut flora from our mother and to a certain extent our father, and the problem becomes worse and worse through the generations.

The author has had great success in treating both children and adults by improving their diet and gut flora. Her own child is/was autistic, which motivated her to search for the cause of this serious problem. Many of us can be glad that it was her lot to be the mother of an autistic child, since it resulted in her finding out the cause of this disease and many other diseases, and to illuminate us on how to heal them.

There are several chapters about the appropriate diet for GAP-syndrome sufferers and one of these includes long lists of recommended foods and foods to avoid. There is also a chapter comprising useful recipes.

I have already excluded a few extra items from my diet, which was severely limited to begin with - I had already discovered that I couldn’t tolerate most of the items the author declared to be unsuitable. I have eliminated butter and kidney beans from my diet and have replaced them with split peas, with great success. The only beans she can recommend are navy and Lima beans, which are apparently more easily digestible for a GAPS person (and others too, I presume).

The most important component of the GAPS diet is probiotics – the essential, beneficial bacteria which can heal our gut. To obtain these we will need to begin to eat cultured vegetables/fermented foods. We will also need to take a good therapeutic-strength probiotic. The author goes into detail about the benefits of the various probiotics,

The book contains an excellent chapter about fats, another of the author’s areas of expertise. (Read her book “Put your heart in your mouth” where she explains about the cholesterol myth and the real causes of atherosclerosis and thus heart disease.)

The book is written in a pleasing and entertaining manner. I thoroughly recommend that you read it. If you implement the author’s advice, you will greatly improve your health and/or that of your GAPS-child. This book and the author’s above-mentioned book are the best health books I’ve read for a considerable time.

This is a book after my own heart! Natasha Campbell-McBride is a Russian-born doctor living now in London, who in my view is one of the few who understands the causes of our modern diseases and how to avoid/cure them by means of nutrition and healthy living as a whole.

In this book she tackles the subject of CHD (Coronary Heart Disease). She tells us this is caused by atherosclerosis, which is “a disease of the arterial wall that leads to narrowing and obstruction of the artery”. CHD is our number one killer. Its two major forms are angina pectoris and myocardial infection (heart attack).

Angina pectoris develops when the space inside the coronary artery is narrowed but not closed up. A heart attack occurs when “the coronary artery closes up completely and the blood supply to the heart muscle stops”.

The author states that conventional medicine does not know the cause of atherosclerosis or how to cure it. She explains in this book what it is and what really causes it, and also how to prevent and reverse it. She dispels the myth of the “diet-heart hypothesis”, and explains that cholesterol is not the enemy but an “integral and very important part of our cell membranes”.

The diet-heart hypothesis stated that dietary fats, including cholesterol, cause heart disease and by avoiding these foods we can avoid developing heart disease. Ancel Keys, who put forward this hypothesis back in 1953, used completely faulty “evidence” and selective data to “prove” his point. In subsequent studies, data that did not support the hypothesis were ignored and the data that did were “inflated and advertised”. Honest studies from different countries have proved the hypothesis to be completely erroneous. Most of the experiments on the influence of dietary fatty acid on blood cholesterol were “biased by serious faults”. Professor George Mann called the diet-heart hypothesis “the greatest scientific deception of our times”.

Natasha Campbell-McBride does a great job in demolishing the myths that have been instilled in us. She explains things clearly and simply and we come to understand how dangerous in fact low cholesterol is and how death-bringing the new cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins.

Campbell-McBride provides us with so much absolutely essential and life-saving information that I can’t begin to mention it all. But we cannot live without cholesterol and in fact every cell of every organ has cholesterol as part of its structure. In the clinical experience of the author, foods with high cholesterol and high animal fat content are an essential medicine for a person with multiple sclerosis, for instance. Caviar is the richest source, followed by cod liver oil, fresh egg yolk, butter, cold-water fish and shellfish, and, finally, lard. So I, who have MS, have begun to eat caviar.

Cholesterol from food has no effect whatsoever on the level of our blood cholesterol. As long as we don’t take cholesterol-lowering drugs, we don’t have to worry about cholesterol. Some people whose bodies are unable to produce enough cholesterol are prone to “emotional instability and behavioral problems”. Low blood cholesterol has been recorded in those who have committed murder and other violent crimes, people with aggressive and violent personalities and those prone to suicide.

The so-called “bad” cholesterol, LDL, is not bad but “directly binds and inactivates dangerous bacterial toxins”. The lethal toxin Staphylococcus aureus which is the cause of MRSA, a common hospital infection, does not work in the presence of LDL cholesterol. People with high levels of cholesterol are protected from infections, while those with low blood cholesterol are prone to various infections and more likely to die from one.

Blood cholesterol “goes through the roof” in people after surgery, goes up when we have an infection, after dental treatment and when we are under stress. This is because cholesterol is a “healing agent” in the body. The body produces cholesterol and sends it to the site of the damage. Because cholesterol travels from the liver to a wound in the form of LDL, “our science”, in its wisdom, calls LDL a “bad” cholesterol. When the wound heals and the cholesterol is removed, it travels back to the liver in the form of HDL, and “our misguided ‘science’ calls it a “good” cholesterol.

Thus, when we have a high blood cholesterol level, it means that the body is dealing with some damage. We should not interfere with this process. When a doctor finds high cholesterol in the patient, he should look for the reason. He should ask “What is damaging the body so the liver has to produce all that cholesterol to deal with the damage?”. Instead he attacks the cholesterol.

“Cholesterol has been mistakenly blamed for the crime, just because it was found at the site of the crime.”

The author devotes a chapter to explaining in detail what atherosclerosis is, and another to what causes it.

The third section of the book explains what we can do to prevent atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes. She informs us that the answer is simple: 1) Stop eating processed foods and 2) Stop polluting your body with chemicals. She goes into these points in detail.

We are given the invaluable information to begin to eat fermented foods which will provide us with massive amounts of probiotics and thus heal our gut.

The final section, informing us that all diseases begin in the gut, is most valuable.

There is a chapter with selected recipes, including how to ferment our foods ourselves.

The author writes well and in an entertaining style, though I found her “foreign” method of placing commas distracting.

In short, this is an absolutely invaluable book that sets us straight on the whole subject of coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, the causes of the latter and how to prevent it and heal ourselves. I thoroughly recommend that you read this book!