Disclaimer: I did my best to take notes at the NTA conference but there may be errors in either my comprehension or transcription of the points presented. I am publishing these without any commentary on my part and these do not necessarily represent my beliefs.

• Michele Simon, JD, MPH –  How They Lie-The Underhanded Tactics of the Food Industry
• Dr. Robert Blaich – Your Inner Pharmacy
• Nora Gedgaudas, NTP – Explosion of Autoimmunity: Newly Understood Mechanisms & Natural Tools for Effective Management
• Andrea Nakayama, CNC – A Functional Nutrition Approach to Thyroid Health

Michele Simon, JD, MPH –  How They Lie-The Underhanded Tactics of the Food Industry

• the biggest emotional button the food industry relies on is fear
• no logical response to GMO labeling – people polled overwhelmingly support more information, including GMO labeling
• industry responds with campaign that focuses on fear of higher prices
• another talking point is that there will be job losses – from soda taxes
• fear that the government will take away freedoms
• distract away from facts – like how much sugar in soft drinks
• industry claiming they want to protect consumers from being confused
• the industry is not in the business of protecting consumers, they are in the business of selling product
• there are studies to refute all these claims
• show me the data
• industry are not good spokespeople so they must manufacture/buy credibility – look at history of tobacco industry – message carried by doctors, academics, etc, or those portraying them
• front groups – names always use warm and fuzzy names “council”, “alliance”, “institute”, “community”, “coalition”
• front groups for food industry release fact sheets, put up ads, engage media
• front groups put faces of sympathetic individuals – small business owners, individuals – not the funders
• very good at tapping into local issues and concerns and create local front groups to manufacture credibility
• another way to manufacture credibility is corporate sponsorship – such as sponsorship of AND
• industry must also tear down opponents – using personal attacks
• industry also has a lot of more money and effective in using it
• industry gets to lie and gets to shout louder
• lies of fear and pretending to care about you
• lies of credibility (manufacturing and tearing down)
• industry always claims job losses in response to any public policy proposal – crying wolf
• why are the CEO’s of these companies not going to the media to make their case – why are they buying experts
• education is not sufficiently effective – public policy is important to change the environment to support people in making healthier choices
• name the junk food company and they are there with the AND
• AND attacked Michelle Simon as not being credible for not being an RD
• AND accepted no responsibility and deflected the issue
• Dieticians for Professional Integrity came out of the woodwork that junk food corporate sponsorship is not ok
• no photography allowed at the AND conference anymore
• reporters are doing a good job exposing aspects of the food industry
• WA 522 GMO labeling initiative – food companies caught breaking the law by funneling money through front groups without legal disclosure – caught late in campaign
• food industry now wants voluntary GMO labeling and remove ability for states to regulate
• prwatch, civileats, marion nestle, tom philpott, mark bittman,

Dr. Robert Blaich – Your Inner Pharmacy

• Dr Goodheart – asthma is not really a lung problem, it’s an adrenal problem – improving function of adrenals a person could produce their own corticosteroids
• foreign concept to people that their own bodies produce bronchodialiaters – think “chemicals” come from outside the body
• working with endurance cyclists – adrenal support (glandulars), bee pollen, b vitamins, essential fatty acid
• what you do to help the body make more chemicals to help the body
• foreign notion that the body produces anti-inflammatory chemicals
• body trauma can lead to inflammatory conditions and nutrition can correct those conditions
• powerful pharmacy within us that can create health or disease
• importance to strive for balance between antagonistic biochemical systems
• 3 critical factors – raw materials (diet, supplements), lifestyle, proper functioning body
• eg insulin – raw materials of amino acids, zinc
• In 1900 average 40 year old would have consumed 400 pounds of sugar in life – In 2000, 6000 pounds – so 15x more raw materials needed for insulin to compensate
• athletes may need 100x more nutrients than a person who is sedentary
• paancreas wearing out due to a lifetime of work in 5 or 10 years of high sugar consumption
• infectious diseases are no longer the leading cause of death – chronic disease, NCD’s
• JAMA 2004 – US chronic disease consumes 78% of national health care expenditures and principal cause of disability
• chronic disease is a set of symptoms that develop as the body fails to regulate itself
• chronic disease are managed but rarely cured
• common chronic diseases – hypertension, CVD, asthma, GERD, diabetes, arthritis, mood disorders (depression and anxiety) – 2 trillion dollar a year disease management industry
• these common chronic diseases are what happens with chronic stress / fight or flight / sympathetic response – if you are attacked by a saber toothed tiger 5 times a day
• 1949 woman with severe rheumatoid arthritis – blast of cortisone led to pain-free – could treat without having to know what was wrong or what was causing the problem in the body
• 1964 beta-blocker for blood pressure – body could produce adrenaline without raising blood pressure – again, not looking at cause of high blood pressure just turn off receptor sites
• JAMA 2004 – the lifestyle syndrome – cluster of conditions and diseases – chronic disease
• squaring the survival curve – James Fries MD Standford – maintain 100% biologic function until the day someone drops dead instead of decades in poor and deteriorating health
• treatments for acture disease is not the right match for chronic disease – chronic disease requires a new approach – keep people healthy / prevent or delay the onset of chronic disease
• empower people – you can control the onset and progression of disease
• new questions: what is the malfunction? What is causing or triggering it? How to correct it (minimizing trade-offs)?
• Healthy aging is an endurance event – restore and maintain normal function
• Malcolm Gladwell “Outliers” – three mile island – no single big thing went wrong – similar to chronic disease – multiple things each in isolation not a problem
• plane crashes – minor malfunction, bad weather, tired pilot – combination that leads to disaster
• rheumatoid arthritis – adrenal issues plus food allergies/sensitivities – multiple interacting factors including some nutritional, sometime genetic, usually stress
• liver uses thiamin to breakdown lactic acid – if you exercise more you need more thiamin – also those who consume a lot alcohol, or women with excess estrogen
• any pain might be wheat related
• food senstivities can be iga igg igm or combination – delayed reaction
• oral pH should be 7.2-7.4, more acidic is indicator of more inflammation in the body

Nora Gedgaudas, NTP – Explosion of Autoimmunity: Newly Understood Mechanisms & Natural Tools for Effective Management

• autoimmune thyroid not often checked for – doesn’t change course of treatment – medications improve blood work but often don’t help symptoms
• Horror Autotoxicus
• autoimmune and AI related diseases are numerous – 80 recognized – now up to 100, 40 more having AI component – including cognitive and psychiatric illness
• disconnect between medical doctors and immunologists – medical doctors not trained in autoimmunity and immunology
• even if a doctor acknowledges autoimmune condition there is very little to offer outside of some symptom ameliaoration
• majority of AI diseases are sharply on the rise
• autism as autoimmune brain disorder beginning in pregnancy – mothers have antibodies for child’s brain
• 1 in 50 children 6-17 have autism as of 2013, 600% increase in past 2 decades
• 1 in 100 people in US has celiac disease – autoimmune condition with antibodies to iGa trans-glutamase enzymes – more likely to effect brain and nervous system than the gut
• 54.1% people with depression may have antibodies to serotonin receptors
• also parkinsons, other mental disorders, and other diseases not commonly thought of
• women have higher risk 15-18 to 1 compared to men in most autoimmune conditions
• diseases of a bad interaction between genes and environment
• AI lies at the intersection of environmental triggers, genetic susceptibility, and gut permeability
• cyrex labs autoimmunity lab panel is the best for finding autoimmunity
• red flags for autoimmunity – chronically depressed white blood cells < 5, overly depressed triglycerides < 40, over-elevated cholesterol or depressed cholesterol < 150, elevated CRL > 1.0, ferritin < 40, total protein < 6.9 or > 7.4, ESR higher than normal, and more
• common causative factors – gluten (initiate or exacerbate every autoimmune condition)
• gluten as a gateway food sensitivity – activates zonulin, which increases gut permeability
• Is gluten really safe for non-coeliac individuals?
• Absorbtive endocytosis wheat germ aglutin
• over 200 health effects which can be linked to gluten
• 400% celiac increase in the last 50 years – 2009 Gastroenterology
• glyphosate may exacerbate the effects of gluten
• as of 2013 60oz of roundup is legal for people in US to consume in 1 year up from 2oz in 2012
• less than 5% of people suffering from gluten sensitivity or celiac disease is ever diagnosed
• as we become more compromised we cannot compensate for gluten
• gluten is not a food, it’s a contaminant
• cross-reactivity – similarity between antibodies / antigens
• standard gluten testing only looks at ige to alpha gliadin
• many other triggers / causes of autoimmune
• 3 stages of autoimmunity – silent stage (producing antibodies but no symptoms), autoimmune reactivity stage (symptoms), advanced autoimmunity (only stage recognized by medicine)
• th-1 cell mediated – viruses, bacteria
• th-2 humoral – antibody production, extracellular, allergies, sensitivities, parasites
• th-3 helper cells – work to mediate th-1 and th-2 so neither becomes destructive, brain does not have th-3, autoimmune have poorly functioning th-3 and polarized to th-1 or th-2
• taming nfkb – turmeric / curcumanoids, trans-resveratrol, glutathione and precursors, alpha lipoic acid, R-lipoic acid
• th-1 or th-2 dominant leads to cytokine overreaction
• immune boosting supplements can make symptoms worse
• th-1 dominant more in organ autoimmune
• th-2 dominant more systemic autoimmune – can be triggered by flavanoids
• th-3 – EPA (fish oil, krill oil), vitamin D3, boost/recycle glutathione levels, PRP’s
• helminthic therapy – hookworn or whipworm eggs – stimulates th-2 function so th-1 dominant people can feel better but autoimmune is not a deficiency of parasites
• autoimmune people – identify environmental triggers, avoid/eliminate them, put out the fire, health the gut, support the tissues
• avoid things which suppress or stimulate immune system, avoid toxic chemicals, avoid processed/gmo foods, lose the gluten, limit stress, journaling, supplements, tedt vit d levels, no refined salt, clean water, lots of pytonutrients and antioxidants, ketogenic diet
• acetaminphen and alcohol are #1 glutathione destroyers
• important to support mitochondrial support
• l-arginine and citrulline are bad because they increase iNOS
• exercise – short and intense
• genes for autoimmune that switch on cannot be switched off – accepted consensus

Andrea Nakayama, CNC – A Functional Nutrition Approach to Thyroid Health 

• each disease state can manifest differently in different people – need for bioindividual approaches
• nutrition to enable people to live a full and quality filled life through disease
• 1 in 5 people in US have hypothroidism – 97% are hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroid
• 10 times more women have hashimoto’s than men
• very likely to see women clients with hashimoto’s
• best not to get lost looking for the next quick fix
• many symptoms – fatigue, memory/cognition, body aches, coldness
• thyrioid issues – hyper/hypo/fluctuating between the 2, viral load, autoimmune, hormones, neuro-transmitters, toxins, inflammation
• hashimoto’s is a full systems disease – affecting many systems
• clinicians should create maps to help clients
• replenishpdx.org/nta
• myriad of factors affect the thyroid – want to find missing link
• hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis – TRH → TSH → T3, T4
• TSH used to be only hormone tested, still today by many – this is not sufficient
• head injuries can impair function of hypothalamus / pituitary
• serotonin and dopamine can affect TRH or TSH pathways
• TPO enzyme is one that gets attacked with hashimoto’s
• thyroid is small and only secretes 2 hormones T3 and T4, TPO involved in creation of both
• 93% T4 but inactive until converted to T3
• T4/T3 – tyrosine and iodine components
• lab wish list – TSH, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, Thyroid antibodies TPO and TgAb, methylmalonic acid, ferritin, 25-hydroxy vitamin D
• liver and kidneys need to functioning well
• 5-D-Iodinase – need selenium and zinc (brazil nuts for se, oysters for zn)
• reverse T3 is inactive like T4 – stress causes more reverse T3 as does low ferritin
• divide Free T3 by reverse T3
• T3 activated in the gut
• need to discern the root of the thyroid issue before addressing it
• look at environmental inputs, stress/resilience, nutrient deficiencies despite the best dietary intentions, sleep and relaxation, genetic predispositions, triggering events, foods, oxidative stress, viral, bacteria, cellular energy, detoxification
• autoimmunity – genetic predispositions, leaky gut, microbiome
• medicine has become too compartmentalized so symptoms which cross systems are not recognized
• antecedents – predispositions, genetics, family history
• triggers – evoked response
• mediators – make things worse or better
• supplement iodine and selenium in tandem

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