Food Infection - Your toxic foods

The different allergic reactions.

Introduction If you don’t know me, my name is Steve Nenninger and I am just a 1

guy. I have gone to a school that teaches both the basics of conventional, Western medicine and also teaches a natural medicine approach.

Before working with a bunch of people to solve health problems, I was a person that was sick. My own diagnosis was ulcerative colitis, a frustrating and embarrassing condition. It was this condition that motivated me to go to naturopathic medical school.

It was my own frustration with the lack of options offered to me by 2

conventional medicine that started my own search for alternative perspectives and explanations for why I was suffering so much with my own condition.

I went to naturopathic medical school for four years, but was no better when I graduated, maybe even a bit worse.

I started learning about healing when my first brave volunteers let me try and help them in 1995 when I graduated. And working with them I started to learn.

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It was not until I tested for my own IgG allergens just a few years ago that I really began to remember what it was like to feel well. (Now it is 15 years ago :) Not only that but it was after testing my siblings that our health issues began to make sense. My older brother had thyroid disease by 18 years old, I had colitis, my other brother had Crohn’s, my other had diabetes and my sister had multiple sclerosis.

When I tested all of us for IgG food allergens the patterns of the foods 5

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that we were all had undiagnosed food allergens. I will do more in the book to help you understand how a simple food allergy could make us all so sick. These kind of pattern of sickness are not unusually in highly allergic families.

So here you see the three different ways we can react to foods. There is the immediate reaction by an antibody called Immunoglobulin E (IgE), this is like the type of peanut

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allergy you hear about children having.

The next is the IgA. This is the medium term antibody reaction.

IgA antibodies are most abundant in our intestines and lungs and tears.

The next is the IgG antibody response. This response in the body takes place over a month.

I try and focus the most important information in the case when someone talks to me about their health. IgG and IgA food allergens are large buckets. If you don’t 8

know them then there is little chance of getting better.

I honestly don’t know why we have these three different systems. If we look at an infection like the flu we can make some guesses. First remember that when we make antibodies to a food we are doing that because the body is making a mistake. When you have a food allergy the body is treating the food like a bug. The body is treating the food like a bacteria or virus.

So if we use the flu as an example then we can get an idea of what the 9

body is trying to do with these three reactions. The body can’t just make the first response because that is a very intense response that can be destructive or even cause death itself. So the body can just use a massive IgE response to protect itself.

We also know that some people can get pneumonia after the flu. This is a secondary infection that can occur weeks after the flu. So the body is trying to protect against those long term consequences also.

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Oh my gosh this is so old now. I was just a young buck when we did this survey a decade ago.

So this is a very intelligent system that is completely defeated when the body gets exposed to the infection frequently. Remember in the case of food allergy - the infection IS the food.

Very often people blame themselves for being sick. Very often others blame us for being sick or for the behaviors that are really resulting from and underlying imbalance.

Some people believe they can correct their illness with a positive attitude. Though there is nothing 13

wrong with a positive attitude, what this kind of thinking often turns into is a belief that you or a loved one is sick because of their attitude.

It just becomes a way of blaming yourself or others for illness.

I definitely blamed myself for my own illness. I figured it must have come through some defect in mental, emotional or physical character. It is only by watching other sick people blame themselves that it became clear how pointless this kind of thinking was. I decided to focus all of my efforts on getting better.

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If you end up being exposed to a bacteria that ends up triggering an immune reaction to your thyroid, adrenal glands or intestines, how is that your fault? The one thing that you are perhaps responsible for is being willing to ask for and to receive help and answers. Maybe that is what brings you to this book.

Food Infection This is why I describe hidden food allergies as “food infections”. Your body is responding to these foods in exactly the same way it would if there was an infection by bacteria 15

or virus in your body. This means that every day you eat that food you are fighting an infection. Over weeks, months and years this will create chronic symptoms and wear your body down.

I have to admit one of the greatest pleasure I find is when the “incurable” case gets better, or when the “lazy” kid get’s straight A’s, or when a heavy person loses 50 or 60 pounds. Basically when those people that were being blamed for factors outside their control, get better and change their health and their life. One of the of 16

the stresses on your body that you may not be aware of is IgG allergens.

Only one approach that has really helped me get better, and helped me heal other people as a naturopathic doctor. That approach is to constantly ask myself what I don’t know about the case that I need to know. Testing for hidden food allergens has been such a huge part of that answer for me and for my patients.

To get a person over their illness, I need to learn facts that I didn’t 17

know before, and then apply them to the case. Asking the right question and getting our answers through testing is the best way to get the facts we need.

I regret at all of the different ways I found to blame myself for being sick. I also look back at all the practitioners that I went to that seemed to believe that I was somehow choosing to be sick.

A common theme is that we are sick because we are stressed. A lot of time this ends up just being another way to say that it is our 18

fault. The truth is that we should be able to take a little or a lot of stress without going into the tailspin of disease. A car should be able to hit a bump in the road without the wheels falling off.

Often people are advised that stress is causing their symptoms and that they need to relax. The main problem is that in inflammatory disease or allergic reactions, the brain is also subject to inflammation. This dysfunctional brain is the same brain that we are asking you to use to change your stress levels.

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I am all for positivity, but what I have come to understand is that a feeling of positivity results from balance brain chemistry. The brain is affected by the illness process and inflammation process of sickness as much as any other organ, if not more. The inflammatory process severely disrupts the signaling system that the brain uses to function properly.

It was not philosophy or theory that helped me to make the changes that allowed my body to heal. I think this is one of the reasons that I choose to look at all medicines as 20

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“naturopathic medicines."

Artificial lines drawn between the different approaches to medicine based on philosophy are great for argument sake but not much else.

Methods of healing which are based on one theory of medicine being better than another, do not make a difference to the patient that is suffering. These arguments, debates and discussions also don’t help cases improve more quickly, this is why I never waste time talking about which approach is better for a condition. The right approach is the one that works.

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This does not mean that all medicines are equal. We always want to use the approach with the least chance of side effects first.

That should just be common sense.

As a naturopathic doctor I know that I have learned a few very effective approaches that do not have side effects.

Another reason that I like being a naturopathic doctor is that we have these safer options as alternatives.

Naturopathic education includes not only natural medicine, but conventional Western medicine, and also includes the interaction 24

between these two approaches to healing.

So the first step in improving health is to fine out which IgG and IgA food allergens you have. We do not usually test IgE because these short lived, intense reactions usually make themselves clear by symptoms.

Hidden Food Allergy Testing Hidden food allergy testing is a great way to get solid facts about a case that can make a difference.

There is no way in my experience 25

to get this information without testing.

After being unwell throughout my twenties, I went to my local library and looked up an article on naturopathic doctors. The article described naturopathic doctors and their education. Naturopathic doctors go to a four-year medical school and learn both Western “conventional” medicine and all forms of natural medicine.

I figured I had nothing to lose, and I went to a naturopathic doctor.

Because my case was complicated, 26

we did not make much progress other than being able to function without prescription drugs. The modest improvements in my symptoms still felt like a major victory. There was something more important that the doctor offered.

The naturopathic doctor truly and sincerely believed in my ability to heal.

This was the first doctor that I had been to in all of my years of illness that believed that I could still heal after all that I had been through.

Because of this experience I decided to become a naturopathic 27

doctor myself. In the years of practice and research as a naturopathic doctor I have a level of health far beyond what I thought would ever be possible. After all that I had been through with illness I would have just been happy to take one day without pain as a success.

Some cases are cured by a single herb, a single nutrient, single diet change, or a homeopathic medicine. Over the years I have had many of those cases in the office. Those cases are fun to treat for both me and the patient.

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I wasn’t one of those patients that experienced an easy cure, so I understand how frustrating it can be when answers don’t come right away or even after a long wait. I needed to keep looking for answers, not give up, and keep working at it. That is the same strategy that I use in the cases that I work with now.

To heal it is important to figure out what is making you sick and keeping you sick. We know that the body is always trying to restore balance. The efforts to restore balance we experience as 29

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symptoms. One thing that I have learned is that if you don’t know your food infections it can be like trying to guess the combinations on a combination lock. It can take a very long time.

The IgA and IgG are hidden food reactions.

Remember, the most important thing about hidden food allergies (IgG and IgA food allergens) is that they are a delayed reaction to foods. It is very often impossible to connect the allergen to the symptoms you are experiencing.

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Hidden food allergies (IgG allergens) can bubble below the surface for many years, draining the body. They create an inflammatory process that must be managed by the body, which it does until it just runs out of the reserves that it needs.If you are into math or science at all you will see that the area under the hidden food allergy (IgG) curve is much greater than that under the immediate reaction (IgE) curve.

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Having an IgG and IgA food allergy is a constant drain to your system. It is like leaving your car lights on by mistake. If you leave for an hour and come back the car may still start. If you leave the lights on for 10 hours however it may be a different story and the car may not start.

How many times have we heard about a person being the “picture or health” before the “surprise illness” got them. Fill in “surprise illness” with the disease of your choice: cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, colitis, 34

depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.

The surface area under the red IgG allergen is much greater than than under the IgE area under the IgE. What this means is that the G allergies will have a much greater effect on the E allergens.

Like its cousins syphilis and lymes disease, gluten can be the great imitator of other conditions.

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As long as the line of health remains above the IgG or IgA allergen curve than you will not see symptoms from the reaction. When the line of health drops you will start seeing symptoms but it is very hard to recognize a symptom that you are experiencing on a Friday from a food that you ate on a Monday.

How food allergens affect the intestines.

The body prefers to have the intestines with what are called 39

“tight junctions." Having the intestinal cells in a tight junction configuration means that nothing can sneak around the cells and that everything has to go through the cell first. This approval process allows for the body to determine what can go directly into the blood stream and what needs to be changed first.

When the body allows the cells of the intestine to separate from each other then the cellular barrier is compromised and many other 40

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allergens can get into the body.

When we see this we see a patient that comes back with an allergy test where everything is high.

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Primary v Secondary Food Allergens.

In this case it is important to recognize the difference between primary and secondary allergens.

Primary allergens are the one that cause the tight junctions to open, secondary allergens are the proteins that get though the already open junctions and create a reaction.

Hidden (IgG and IgA) Food Allergens create a chronic drain.

IgG food allergens are the type of problem in practice that I call “bucket holes." We think of a good 45

level of health as a full bucket of water. Because people sense that they are not full or running on empty, then they come in looking 46

for a “fill-up." When patients come in complaining about how many doctors they have been to, then I know this is what has been going on.

So if a person has low energy they may come into the office asking for something that will give them energy. It is a more important question to figure out why a person has low energy. People come in with requests or desires for a treatment that are what I call, “Fill my bucket." They want something to feel better, to fill them up.

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It is easy to give a quick fix, and fill the bucket temporarily.

However that person will soon return with the same illness if not a new and sometimes worse condition. A much more effective use of time, effort and money is to fix the problems first. Cork the holes before filing the bucket.

Gluten and Modern as a Food Allergen Gluten and wheat allergens that creates the most problems for the body. One of the first things to realize is that according to researchers that I have heard speak 48

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about gluten it is the only protein that that human body can not completely break down. This leaves a foreign protein that the body may attack as a foreign invader.

Look at the images comparing the size and shape of gluten molecules and bacteria. Gluten shares a size and shape similar to bacteria. We know that the syphilis and Lyme

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disease are very destructive to all the body’s tissues. These form of bacteria are perceived by the body as tremendous threats. We do not know why these bacteria create such an immune reaction.

The images in this graphic are designed to show you how these three substance can create similar problems. The graphic represents the size and shape of the gluten molecule that is found in the grains that we call wheat, rye and barley, and compares it to other molecular shapes that our bodies are exposed to.

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When the body senses the infection it doesn’t just attack the virus, bacteria or other microbe. The full immune response is against the microbe and all tissue associated with the infections, including the body’s own tissues. The body’s immune strategy is to destroy everything and fix the damage after. Of course the main goal is to clear the invader, so as not to miss the infection.

After the infection is cleared then the body can go about its work of repairing and regenerating the tissues. Again, the problem with 53

Endomysium (shown in red) is woven throughout the

allergens is that the exposure never stops, and therefore the immune response never stops either.

Gluten is a problem because it looks like the syphilis bacteria and therefore can create the same immune response. It is not just that gluten can create problems in the 54

intestines either. IgG allergens can effect the entire body. Keep in mind there are many different tissues in the intestines. Those other tissues are part of the endomysium also.

If you are having an immune reaction in the intestine then it can show up anywhere else in the body.

When the body creates immune reactions it can fight against it’s own tissue.

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Figure 7: The grain family gluten containing grains.

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Gluten is found in any food that contains the grains wheat, rye or barely. Because it is such an effective thickener it is also used in many foods that that you would not suspect. Truly avoiding gluten takes much work!

The amount of gluten free alternatives is fantastic now in comparison to ten or even five years ago is the awareness that exists in the culture for people that have gluten sensitivity. The “Grain Family” graphic shows the relationships of grains.

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The Whole Body Allergy Connection Because the thread of the endomysium is like a net that holds our body together it runs throughout the body, the local affects of the allergy can become systemic. An additional point about intestinal allergies is that they can have a special affect on the tissue of the body that starts out from the same place as the intestinal tissue in the embryo.

The body forms in three different layers, the endoderm, the 58

mesoderm and the ectoderm.

These layers are the inside, the middle and the outside of their body.

The endoderm forms the guts, but some other tissue is also formed from this inner layer. So when the baby is developing in the womb then the inner tube forms the intestines. A part of this inner tube also goes up into our abdomen and becomes the pancreas.

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Another part travels all the way up to the throat and becomes the thyroid. So you can see that an 60

immune reaction that affects endodermal tissue like the 61

intestines will also create a problem in the pancreas and thyroid, tissues far away from where they began when the body was first developing.

Different tissues can be affected by an IgG allergy.

Why We Crave our Food Allergens Part of the addictive effect of our food allergens is because eating our allergens can cause the same effects in our body as taking drugs like morphine. Another way of looking at the addiction to food allergens is that it is more like an addiction to 62

amphetamines. This stimulation provided to the body by consuming an allergen is like a shock to the system, but a stimulating shock.

Some people may experience feeling very well the day before they come down with an illness or a return of their symptoms. This is the same effect as when we eat our allergens and feel well at first.

One of the best things that I can hear from a patient when I tell them that they need to give up a food allergen is that, “It is going to be so hard because I love bagels, or I love eggs, or I can’t do without my 63

milk. These words tell me that the person has an addictive attachment to the food.

One of the worst thing we can hear when we go through the trouble of testing for allergens is that the person doesn’t eat the food that came back high or eats it rarely.

When I hear a person become frustrated, or confused or even angry about giving up a food, then I know that removing that food will be a big help for that patient.

Summarizing IgG and IgA Food Allergens 64

Let's summarize why IgG allergy testing is so important for any inflammatory disease.

IgG and IgA allergies, because they take so long to develop, are considered hidden allergies.

These allergies can persist for many years or even decades, They can exist since early childhood.

Just like you don’t know a battery is drained until the lights go out, you may not experience the symptoms of the allergy until your body is no longer able to suppress the inflammation that is created.

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Even though the inflammation that is created can occur locally in the intestines, the effects, symptoms and/or damage can be systemic.

Testing for Hidden (IgG and IgA) Food Allergies We are lucky in practice now that testing for IgG and IgA allergies is so much easier than it was previously. They are tested with a single finger stick and two dime size drops of blood.

The testing samples are then exposed to a process called florescent immune assay. This 66

means that the sample is exposed to the antigen (allergen) and if the body is making antibodies (fighting) to that substance then a very sensitive detector will pick up a discharge of light. This process is not only able to tell you if you are allergic but how allergic you are.

Keep in mind in an allergy the body is fighting the allergen as if it were a bacteria or a virus. When the body is fighting a bacteria or a virus that is the number one priority for the body. The body is even will to sacrifice its own tissue is order to get rid of this infection.

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When the infection is actually an allergy than the body is constantly being exposed to the same threat.

Even though this allergen is not really a threat your body does not know this and it will keep unloading a destructive force on your own body.

Following is an actual test results for IgG allergens on a patients.

This is just to give you an overall view of what the first page of the test looks like. After that I will show you the three main allergens that I see as problems in practice.

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Figure 10: Whole page sample of

IgG food allergens.

The Most Harmful Food Allergens 69

These three are the most harmful allergens because they are animal proteins, or in the case of gluten, they look like bacteria. Those proteins that are in the animal family have the greatest ability to signal our bodies self defense red alert system.

When our body sees these proteins it thinks there is a bacterial infection in our intestine. Because of this it changes the structure of our intestines, literally opening holes, turning “tight junctions” into “loose junctions."

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What I have see is that mild allergies have been causing most emotional problems, eggs being associated with cancer and arthritis and gluten containing grains with most other inflammation. That being said these observations are really in the initial stages and I am constantly being surprised by another food.

Egg Allergens and Cancer One allergen that I have found to be very dangerous is eggs. An allergy to eggs seems to make the patients I have seen more susceptible to 71

cancer. Many of the cancer patients I have seen have this egg allergen. Eggs are made of tissue that will become other tissue. If we look at cancer cells they are cells that have lost the ability to know which tissue they are.

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Is the testing accurate and consistent?

Sometimes I am asked about the accuracy and consistency of the testing that we do. We are always looking for both in every test that we do. The ultimate test of accuracy is whether avoiding the food allergens improves the symptoms. This is the ultimate test of the results.

Sometimes people are concerned that they may have just eaten an allergen. They are afraid that this my affect their results. On the 74

other hand we have people that worry that they have been avoiding an allergen and that for this reason it wont show on the test.

These hidden food allergen take a long time to develop and a long time to decrease. This is one of the reasons that these allergens are so damaging. It is probably better to think of them more like a freight train than a sports car as far the time it takes for the antibody levels to increase and decrease.

Because I have seen many of these results I can say that I am 75

constantly amazed by the consistency of the results. It is not very often that we have testing on the same patient within a short period of time, but it does happen some times, and I will show some of the results here. Here are just a few examples of test that reinforce my confidence in the testing.

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Two Tests: Same Mom Tested six months apart and avoiding her allergens.

Notice the same allergen, just a decreased level based on her avoidance of the allergens. This is an amazing example of the consistency of the IgG testing.

One of the things that we do in our testing is that we test for both the allergies to cooked and raw foods.

This is so important it would be hare for me to emphasize enough.

Every other allergy test only tests the raw version of the food.

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There are big difference between the cooked and raw versions of foods. Everything that you perceive in the difference between a cracked egg in a bowl and a plate of scrambled eggs is a difference in the shape of the proteins.

It is these same proteins that our immune system is reacting to when we have an hidden (IgG) food 79

allergy. The reason that cooked eggs look different than raw eggs is that the proteins have different shapes.

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I have done many of these tests in practice. I have seen amazing consistency in the results. Even when we do test in practice such as sending duplicate tests under different names the results are consistent. We do this with the support of the lab as they are the most diligent about the consistency of their results.

There are some patients, such as a patient that has been diagnosed with cancer, that may choose to get tested every few months. So although most patients may only get a single test I do get to see 82

patients were many tests are done.

The results are exactly as you would expect with remarkable consistency.

A PARENTS NIGHTMARE Six months ago, my three year old son was diagnosed with Molluscum Contagiosum a viral skin infection that causes wart like lesions on the skin. The firm bumps (papules) are painless, but if scratched, the infection can spread to the surrounding skin and other people. I am writing this in hopes that the research, mistakes and 83

lessons I learned over the past six months could possibly help to prevent a child from going though the pain and suffering that my son and family has recently gone though. And so I will start at the very beginning…

In September of 2011, I noticed after giving my son a bath that there were approximately 4 little bumps on his chest. The bumps were small, clear, and hardly noticeable, and because he has always had eczema (rough dry patches and little red bumps on his skin) I didn’t think much of it. I 84

decided to put some of the steroid cream that the pediatrician had prescribed him since the day he was born on the bumps. I had used it religiously to keep his eczema under control. A few weeks went by and I noticed that the bumps remained on his chest, so I casually mentioned it to the pediatrician.

I was asked to bring him in, and once examined, it was confirmed that although he did still have eczema, the bumps were Molluscum Contagiosum. The pediatrician then proceeded to inform me that “it is not a serious 85

skin disease, but it is highly contagious and since it is viral, there is no cure and it will eventually go away on its own within 1-3 years.” That just didn’t sit right with me, how could it take 3 years for these little bumps to go away? So I decided to take my son to a pediatric dermatologist.

By the time I was able to get an appointment with the dermatologist (one month later), my son had 15 bumps on his chest. The dermatologist confirmed that it was Molluscum Contagiosum and told 86

me that there were several treatments for the skin disease.

Treatments included either freezing the lesions off, removing them with a curette, removal by laser, or the use of certain chemicals to burn them off. And since all of these options leave the possibility of scarring, and none kill the virus, his advice was to ignore it and let it go away on its own. Again he reiterated that it could take a year or it could take three years depending on when my son’s body decided to recognize and fight the virus. He also 87

prescribed a stronger steroid cream for my son since eczema aggravates the condition.

Two months later I noticed the bumps spreading on to my son’s genitals. I immediately and frantically called the dermatologist and was told to “just leave them alone and they will go away… eventually.” So I did what I was told to do since the doctors are the experts… right?

Three months later my son had approximately 50 warts all over his body. They were on his chest, 88

arms, legs, and genitals. The day I saw one come out on his forehead I immediately made an appointment with another dermatologist for a second opinion. Something had to be done, what will he look like a year from now, or worse three years from now? Plus, for fear of passing it on to another child I keep him out of preschool, did not allow him to have play dates with other children and keep him away from all family members.

The second dermatologist examined my son and asked why he was not treated three months 89

ago. She told me that the virus would continue to spread and that she normally treats it right away.

Little did I know at that point what hell I was about to endure in the days to come and the pain and suffering that my son was going to go through.

The first procedure she decided to do was to cut the bumps off using a curette which is extremely sharp. The physician assistant put numbing cream on the little bumps and my three year old son was asked to sit naked for 30 minutes for the cream to take effect. Not 90

only did he have to sit he had to sit still and not scratch the bumps that were now itching due to the numbing cream. Did I mention that he was three? Then my husband, the nurse and I had to hold him down while the physician assistant cut each bump off, one by one.

The blood curdling screams were unbearable, but all I keep thinking was ok, maybe the disease will stop spreading so fast if we get them off.

After a 15 minute procedure, about 25 bumps were removed and I was told to come back in two weeks to remove the rest. However, in the 91

meantime they prescribed Aldara, a genital wart cream. I was told to put the cream on the remaining bumps every night. The cream was supposed to stimulate his immune system to start fighting the virus.

So, again, I did what I was told to do and listened to the doctor.

Well, within one week all of the bumps that were cut off came back, and about 20 more appeared on my son’s body. His body had horrific scarring and the Aldara cream upset his eczema so much that his whole body felt like sand paper. I immediately called to make another 92

appointment with the dermatologist. Surly, this was not normal! When she saw me back so soon, she seemed annoyed and asked me what the problem was. I explained what had happen to his skin and how the bumps were spreading like crazy. She proceeded to examine my son, tell her assistant to use a Catherine treatment on the warts and walked out of the room. Apparently the Catherine treatment was supposed to make the little bumps blister and then pop, thus removing the virus filled papules. The assistant then 93

proceeded to dot each bump, even the bumps on his genitals with a strong smelling liquid; I found out later (from the internet) that it was poisonous juice derived from a beetle. I was told to wash the treatment off in three hours. Wow, I thought to myself, no tears this is a much better option than holding my son down and cutting them off.

I did as I was told and washed the treatment off in the bath exactly three hours later. Approximately 4 hours after the treatment was washed off my son woke up at 10:00 pm screaming and crying.

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He was inconsolable. My husband and I tried to calm him down and ask what was wrong and he kept screaming, “help mommy, it hurts please help me and make the hurt go away.” We stripped his pajamas off of him and our jaws dropped. There were about 30 blisters ranging from the size of a grape to the size of a ping pong ball all over his body. I immediately called the dermatologist’s emergency line. Fortunately, the doctor on call was the dermatologist that ordered the procedure and she told me to give 95

him Tylenol and pop the blisters with a pin. So there we were, 11:00 at night trying to pop huge blisters on my three year old as he screamed, “please stop hurting me, please, please let me go, please don’t touch me.” There was so much fear in his eyes, and what hurt the most was that he feared his parents, the very parents that wanted the best for him, that wanted him to get better.

The next day my son woke up with a 103.5 fever. He had it for three days. He wouldn’t let us go near him and flinched every time 96

we came close to him. His body was scarred from the cuts and now burnt from the Catherine treatment.

Honestly, he looked like a burn victim. His skin was raw, red and ripped apart. And, the warts…well they were still there!

A week went by and his skin did not heal from the burns. I made an appointment to see the dermatologist once again. I wanted her to see how badly his burns were and hoped she could prescribe something to help him heal. After the examination, she asked her assistant to prescribe Mupirocin for 97

the burns and Protopic (a nonsteroid cream) for the eczema and walked out of the room. She did mention before she walked out that I was no longer allowed to bring my 4 year old daughter (who was sitting quietly on the chair in the office) to these appointments and to please get a babysitter next visit.

That day I left that doctors office defeated and in tears. What did I do to my son? At that point he had over 75 warts all over his body and his beautiful baby skin was now destroyed.

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That night I decided to do research. I didn’t trust the doctors anymore, so I researched all of the medicated creams that I was putting on my son. Every cream had horrific side effects. The worse side effect was from the most recent prescription, Protopic, it could eventually cause skin cancer.

That cream cost me $150.00, I threw it in the garbage.

I continued to research. I researched every website, every blog and every forum that was written about molluscum. I researched for the next week, every 99

chance I could get, I must have spent 5 hours a day researching.

And what I noticed was that there were many naturopathic remedies to get rid of the symptoms but nothing to get rid of the virus.

Since conventional medicine did not help the problem, and only made it worse, I decided that I was going to take my son to see a Naturopathic doctor.

My sister’s very good friend recommended Dr. Nenninger. She spoke very highly of Dr. Nenninger and was so grateful that he was able to heal her son naturally, when 100

conventional doctors told her he needed tubes in his ears. Today, her son is happy, healthy and has not had an ear infection since seeing Dr. Nenninger!

After doing some research I found out that Dr. Nenninger was a well known, well respected, extremely knowledgeable Naturopathic doctor. Maybe there was hope, maybe my son could heal! I emailed Dr. Nenninger and he personally responded to me within hours and I was given an appointment immediately. Wow! My husband, my daughter and my 101

son all went to the visit. He was kind and friendly, and offered my children paper, crayons and corn chips while letting them play with his two adorable dogs. My kids were happy and comfortable in his presence. My son, who was now conditioned to fear doctors, didn’t fear him.

The doctor observed my son and then we went over his medical history. Dr. Nenninger explained to my husband and me that my son’s immune system was distracted and that was why his body was not 102

fighting the molluscum virus. He suspected food allergies.

He explained that skin disorders such as eczema, rashes and warts are created because the body’s immune system is too busy making antibodies to fight food proteins, when it should be creating antibodies to fight viruses and bacteria. He pricked my son’s finger, put a few drops of blood on a piece of paper and said that he would be in touch as soon as the results came it. That was the last little bit of pain my son has every 103

felt. Within one week the test results came in.

Dr. Nenninger sat with both my husband and me, while the kids played in his office and explained that my son should avoid dairy, gluten and eggs.

Apparently, his body was so busy creating antibodies to fight these food proteins, and was so distracted that it was never going to ever be able to fight the molluscum virus. I have to be honest, this was tough to hear; everything my son ate contained dairy, wheat and 104

eggs! In fact, his favorite foods were cheese, yogurt, pasta and cereal! But, we wanted my son to heal and Dr. Nenninger promised me he would. That was the first thing he said to me, “Don’t worry mom, he will heal.” Most importantly, Dr. Nenninger promised to find out the underlying cause of the virus, not just hid, cover up, or in my son’s case, cut or burn off the symptoms!

My husband and I went home that day and threw out everything in the house that contained gluten, dairy and eggs. We drove to Whole 105

Foods and found alternatives for everything my son enjoyed the most without the ingredients he was allergic to. We explained to him that he would have to eat new and special food to help the bumps go away. When I asked Dr. Nenninger how long it would take to see results, he told me to give it a month or two and the bumps would just fall off.

He also reminded me that it was more than just molluscum that we were healing; we were healing my son’s immune system which is far more important than the bumps 106

which were just symptoms. I asked if there was anything else that could help to speed up the process, so he also gave my son an immune boosting supplement and Thuja for the warts. For the first time in six months we all had hope, we were actually smiling not crying and best of all we were not hurting our son, we had nothing to lose!

Within the first week of the diet, my son’s skin started to look smoother and brighter and the bumps stopped spreading. Within two weeks of the diet his eczema was gone for the first time since he 107

was born. Within three weeks of the diet, the bumps started to fall off.

Within four weeks of the diet, all 75 bumps fell off and not one has returned! My son’s skin started to heal. He still has some discoloration and some scarring from the burns and scrapping, but his soft baby skin is back. He beat the molluscum! A skin virus my son had for six months, healed within one month of avoiding the foods he was allergic to. His body is stronger and will now be able to better fight viruses and bacteria.

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I am eternally grateful for Dr. Nenninger and so thankful that there are doctors out there that truly do care to find the real cause of a problem, not just cover it up or cut it off. I hope that this story will encourage parents to try alternative medicine, question conventional medicine and know that healing is possible!

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Further Research: Clinical relevance of IgG antibodies against food antigens in Crohn's disease: a double-blind cross-over diet intervention study.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20130407/

Toward An Understanding of Allergy and In-Vitro Testing. http://www.fooddetective.pl/download/ No%2014%20%20Towards%20an%20understanding% 20of%20Allergy%20and%20In%20Vitro%20testing.pd f

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Assessment of Intestinal Barrier Permeability to Large Antigenic Molecules Aristo Vojdani, Ph.D., M.T. http://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/ mucosal_barrier.pdf

Contact: SteveNenninger@PM.ME www.SteveNenninger.com Phone (631) 235-2111

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