Children with vitamin A deficiency can be given as 
much as 60,000 micrograms of vitamin A as a single dose. A lot of parents are concerned about overdosing on vitamin A. Indeed in 
excess this vitamin can be toxic. However, to reach toxic levels you have to 
have more than 10 times the recommended daily allowance for a period of 
weeks to years. For an adult that is 20 teaspoons of cod liver oil every day 
for weeks or years. For a small child -10 teaspoons a day. I cannot imagine 
anybody taking that amount of cod liver oil once, let along on a regular 
basis. To cause an acute toxicity an adult has to have 100 times more than 
the recommended dose and a child - 20 times more, which translates into 
20 teaspoons of cod liver oil for a child of three years of age. GAPS patients may benefit from larger doses, than the recommended 
daily allowances. To be completely scientific about it the person should be 
tested for vitamin A status and according to the result of the test the indi­
vidual dose can be established, taking into account that absorption of this 
vitamin can be poor in a GAPS gut. The initial dose may be quite large. Then of course the patient has to be re-tested on a regular basis to re­
adjust the dose. However, in real life the majority of patients cannot do that 
for various practical reasons. I generally recommend following RDA according to age. This amount of 
cod liver oil on a regular basis over time would gently correct vitamin A 
deficiency. The diet, which we have talked about, would also provide con­
siderable amounts of this valuable vitamin. The whole nutritional pro­
gramme over time would restore proper digestion and absorption of this 
vitamin, as well as many other nutrients. 4. DIGESTIVE ENZYMES 
1. Hypochlorhydria 
People with abnormal gut flora almost without exception have low stomach 
acid production. Toxins produced by overgrowth of Candida species, Clostridia 
and other pathogens have a strong ability to reduce secretion of stomach acid. What does it mean and why is it important? The stomach is the place where protein digestion begins. Hydrochloric 
acid produced by the stomach walls activates pepsin, a protein-digesting 
enzyme, which starts breaking down the very complex structure of dietary 
proteins into peptides and amino acids. To do its work properly pepsin 
needs the pH of the stomach to be 3 or below. In hypochlorhydria not 
enough acid is produced, so the pH in the stomach is not low enough for 
pepsin to do its job properly. The most studied proteins in connection with GAPS conditions, particu­
larly autism and schizophrenia, are gluten and casein. In these patients the 
digestive system converts them into opiate-like substances, called caso­
morphin and gliadomorphin, which are thought to find their way to the 
patient's brain and block a lot of normal brain activity and development. The digestion of casein and gluten, just as digestion of all other proteins, 
starts in the stomach. In a child or an adult with low stomach acidity this 
digestive process goes wrong from the beginning, which sets up the scene 
for the formation of casomorphin and gliadomorphin. DrW. Shaw, in the 
revised edition of his book Biological Treatments for Autism andPDD, gives 
an interesting example of a child, who had a very severe withdrawal re­
action, when casein and gluten were taken out of his diet, with violent 
behaviour and refusal to eat or drink. Indeed withdrawal of opiates in drug 
addiction can be extremely dramatic. But in this child the withdrawal 
symptoms were temporarily relieved by regular administration of Alka-
Seltzer Gold. Now why would simple bicarbonate Alka-Seltzer Gold have 
such an effect? Maybe the answer is that by neutralising whatever little 
stomach acid the child had, Alka-Seltzer Gold interfered with the digestion 
of other dietary proteins with production of other opiate-like peptides, 
which were giving this child a temporary "morphine fix", reducing the 
withdrawal symptoms? As a result of low stomach acid production the whole process of protein 
digestion in the body goes wrong from the very beginning. The 
maldigested protein then passes through into the small intestine. The 
intestinal wall and pancreatic enzymes, which accomplish further steps in 
the protein digestion, expect the protein to arrive from the stomach in a 
particular form in order to do their job properly. It is like a conveyer belt or 
an assembly line in a factory. If the first person does a poor job, then no 
matter how well the rest of the people in the line may work, the end pro­
duct is likely to be of a poor quality. However, what happens in the body is 
even worse. The problem is that in the body "the rest of the line" cannot 
work properly either, because it is regulated by the "first person". This first 
person is the stomach acid. Stomach acidity is the major regulator of pan­
creatic and liver ability to respond to arriving food. In a normal situation 
food coming from the stomach into the duodenum has to have a pH of 2 or 
below to stimulate production of two very important players in the whole 
digestive process. These players are two hormones, produced by the walls 
of the duodenum, which get absorbed into the blood and carried to the 
pancreas, liver, stomach and many other organs in the body. These hor­
mones are secretin and cholecystokinin. The first hormone, secretin, gives 
the stomach a command to stop producing its juices, stimulates the liver to 
produce bile and lets the intestinal lining know that food is coming, so it 
makes enough mucous to protect itself. But the most important thing that 
it does is to stimulate the pancreas to produce alkalising bicarbonate solu­
tion to neutralise the acid in the food, which has just arrived from the 
stomach, because normally the duodenum and the rest of the small intes­
tine have a far more alkaline pH. This alkaline pH is essential for pancreatic 
enzymes to do their job of digesting proteins, fats and carbohydrates. By 
stimulating production of bicarbonate secretin prepares the food for the 
digestive enzymes coming from the pancreas. To produce these digestive enzymes the pancreas needs the command 
of the second hormone - cholecystokinin. If cholecystokinin is not made 
by the walls of the duodenum because of too little acid coming from the 
stomach with the food, then the pancreas will be sitting there idly and not 
producing its digestive enzymes to deal with that food. In addition, chole­
cystokinin tells the stomach to stop its activity, makes the gallbladder 
empty its bile into the duodenum, ready to digest fats, and opens the gates 
for pancreatic juices to flow and start digesting arriving food (F1G.7). These two hormones are so important in normal food digestion that 
without them this digestion simply cannot happen. Unfortunately, in a person with low stomach acidity that is exactly what happens. The food 
comes from the stomach not acid enough to trigger the production of 
secretin and cholecystokinin. So, the pancreas does not produce its juices 
and bile is not secreted to work on the fats. Maldigestion and malabsorp­
tion follow. Partially digested proteins, like casomorphin and gliadomor­
phin and many others get produced and absorbed through the damaged 
leaky intestinal wall, acting as opiates in the brain. Other maldigested pro­
teins cause allergies and autoimmune reactions, draining an already com­
promised immune system even further. A lot of essential vitamins, amino 
acids and minerals do not get absorbed, causing nutritional deficiencies. Maldigested carbohydrates get consumed by abnormal flora, which con­
verts them into alcohol, acetaldehyde and a whole host of other toxins. Fats 
do not get digested, which makes the person deficient in extremely impor­
tant fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, essential fatty acids, and gives the 
person pale floating stool or diarrhoea. Undigested food simply rots in the 
digestive tract, poisoning the whole body. Secretin has received a lot of publicity in autistic circles since some cases 
of great improvements were seen after injecting autistic children with 
secretin. Soon homeopathic forms of this hormone became available. Cholecystokinin is available as a supplement in the USA and some parents 
who tried it with their children apparently reported similar to secretin 
effect. Unfortunately, the majority of autistic children show very little or no 
response to this treatment, because secretin is only one factor in a very 
complex digestive process. Normalising stomach acid production is a far 
more important intervention in order to put the whole digestive process 
right from the beginning. Apart from literally ruining the whole digestive process, lack of acid in 
the stomach has other serious implications. Stomach acid is the first barrier for huge numbers of microbes arriving 
with every bit of food or drink we put into our mouths. If the stomach is not 
acid enough, these microbes have a good chance of getting into the 
intestines, which they would colonise and cause trouble. They even start 
growing in the stomach itself! Normally the stomach is the least-populated 
area of the digestive system due to its extremely acid environment. However, in a person with hypochlorhydria all sorts of pathogenic and 
opportunistic bacteria and fungi can grow on the stomach wall, such as 
Helicobacter pylori, Campylobacter pylori, Enterobacterial Candida, 
Salmonella, E. coli, Streptococci, etc. The most research in this area has been 
done in stomach cancer patients, the majority of which show low levels of FIG. 7 Regulation of digestive process by the stomach acid. stomach acid production. Microbes, which populate low acid stomach play 
a very important role in causing stomach cancer, ulcers and gastritis. Of course, most of these microbes love to eat carbohydrates, particularly 
the processed kind. The digestion of carbohydrates starts in the mouth with 
the action of saliva. When the food arrives into the stomach in the normal 
situation stomach acid stops this digestion. So, carbohydrates have to wait 
until they arrive at the duodenum to be digested. But in the stomach with 
low acidity overgrowing microbes start fermenting dietary carbohydrates, 
often with the production of various toxins and gas, which can make it very 
uncomfortable for the GAPS child or adult and make them refuse food. So, what do we do? I believe that GAPS patients need supplementation with stomach acid. The most physiological preparation available on the market is Betaine HC1 
with added Pepsin. One capsule usually provides 200-300 mg of Betaine 
HC1 and loomg of Pepsin. It should be taken at the beginning of each meal. The capsules usually contain an adult dose. However, I find that children as 
young as eight can take this dose without any trouble. To determine the 
right dose for your child start from a small pinch of the powder added to 
the first spoonfuls of the meal. In two to three days increase to two pinches 
and so on. For children from 18 months to 24 months one pinch is usually 
enough. For two to three year olds two to three pinches. For four to six year 
olds half a capsule is enough. For six and older from half to a full capsule. Children older than 10 and adults may need two capsules at the beginning 
of each meal. A lot of parents report great improvement in their child's 
stool in just a few days from starting Betaine HC1 with Pepsin. Make sure 
that you do not give probiotic to your child together with Betaine HC1 as 
the acid is likely to destroy the probiotic bacteria. Give the probiotic first 
thing in the morning, between food or after food when the stomach acid is 
at its lowest. Apart from supplementing stomach acid there are natural things we can 
do to stimulate the body to produce its own stomach acid. Cabbage juice is 
one of the strongest stimulants. Having a few spoonfuls of cabbage juice or 
a small cabbage salad before the meal will help to digest that meal. Sauerkraut and its juice are even stronger. A small helping of sauerkraut or 
a few tablespoons of its juice will prepare the stomach for the arriving food. Having a cup of home-made meat stock with your meal will also help to 
increase stomach acidity. With children the easiest thing to do is to give 
them a cup of home-made meat stock with a few spoonfuls of sauerkraut 
juice or cabbage juice mixed in it. 2. Pancreatic Enzymes 
These are the enzymes that people are talking about when they say "diges­
tive enzymes". They usually include a mixture of proteases, peptidases, 
lipases, amylase, lactase and cellulase, which normally would be breaking 
down your food in the small intestine. In a healthy digestive tract most of 
these enzymes are produced by the pancreas. If we can restore normal 
stomach acidity then this stage in digestion should go without any prob­
lem, because the stomach acid would trigger the pancreas to produce its 
own enzymes. That is why I consider restoring the stomach acid level far 
more important than supplementingparicreatic enzymes. There has been a polemic in autistic circles about supplementing some 
peptidases and proteases to replace the diet (meaning the GFCF diet, of 
course). The idea was that these enzymes would break down gluten and 
casein, so that there would be no need to struggle with implementing the 
diet. Not surprisingly this approach did not work for the majority of 
people, because enzymes can never replace a diet. The diet, which we 
describe in this book is designed to heal the gut and to re-establish normal 
gut flora. No enzyme can do that! Generally in my clinical experience I see a lot of improvement from sup­
plementing stomach acid. However, I do not see much happening from 
supplementing pancreatic enzymes. If the patient feels that they really 
help then there is no reason why he or she should not take them, providing 
the tablet does not contain fillers or binders which may interfere with the 
healing processes in the gut. In my experience the majority of patients do 
very well with just supplementing stomach acid, because it will trigger pro­
duction of their own pancreatic enzymes through secretin and cholecys­
tokinin, as well as triggering bile secretion and many other important 
players in the digestive process, making it far more natural. Digestive enzymes do not need to be taken permanently. As the gut 
starts healing the person can slowly withdraw the stomach acid supple­
mentation and/or pancreatic enzymes, taking them only with heavy meals 
or if something not allowed on the diet has been eaten. 5. VITAMIN AND 
MINERAL SUPPLEMENTATION 
A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill 
if you don't eat it. Albert von Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986) 
Hungarian-bom US biochemist 
GAPS patients have many nutritional deficiencies, so it is a natural desire 
to get rid of them. The question is: how? Is it a matter of simply testing how much magnesium, for example, a 
person is missing and then supplementing that amount? Or is it a matter of 
taking a supplement "specifically designed" for autism or ADHD or 
schizophrenia, using the "one size fits all" approach? Maybe we should just 
give megadoses of all the nutrients, which the person is deficient in, 
hoping that the body will sort it all out? Many health practitioners turn to testing for nutritional deficiencies. For 
every nutrient there are optimal tests, which are considered to give the 
most accurate information about that particular nutrient, and there are 
less optimal tests, which may be quite misleading. Trying to use the most 
optimal test for every nutrient is impractical and can be very expensive. So, 
usually one or two tests are performed for all the nutrients at once, which 
does not represent the true picture. So, trying to work out a nutritional 
supplementation protocol based on these tests is shaky from the start. On top of that, many supplements on the market have a very low 
absorption rate, some about 9%, so the amount the patient's body would 
actually get can be way below what it says on the bottle. But, of course, the 
majority of manufacturers would not tell you on the bottle how low the 
absorption rate of their supplement is, even if they knew. So, choosing a 
supplement can be quite difficult. Absorption of supplements is a complicated process which, apart from 
the quality of the supplement, also depends on the state of the patient's 
digestive system. Two different people may absorb different amounts of 
nutrients from the same supplement. GAPS digestive system is generally 
not in good shape and may not absorb any of those nutrients particularly 
well. To complicate the whole matter even further, many nutrients compete 
for absorption sites in the gut. So, if we supplement too much calcium, for example, it may impair absorption of other nutrients: magnesium, zinc, 
copper, iron, some amino acids and others, creating deficiencies in those 
nutrients. Indeed this is a very confusing area of nutrition. The truth is nobody 
knows how to prescribe vitamins and minerals because we do not have 
enough research or knowledge on this subject. Every nutritionist or medi­
cal practitioner has his/her own collection of favourite supplements and 
that is what they usually use on most of their patients. lust as with main­
stream psychiatry, where drugs are used mostly on a trial-and-error basis, 
the same method is used in prescribing vitamin and mineral supplements. Taking vitamin and mineral supplements has become very common not 
only because many of us take "health-pills", but because a lot of foods are 
fortified with vitamins and minerals to compensate for the loss of those 
nutrients in the food processing, not to mention the fact that many foods 
are grown using intensive farming techniques, which makes them nutrient 
poor from the start. Unfortunately, a lot of these supplemented nutrients 
are synthetic. The body has been designed to use natural forms of these 
nutrients and often does not recognise the synthetic forms and does not 
know what to do with them. There is a growing suspicion that a lot of cases 
of kidney stones, for example, are caused by supplementing synthetic 
forms of vitamin C, which would represent most vitamin C supplements 
available in the shops. There is a highly publicised opinion that in our modem world we cannot 
be healthy without taking nutritional supplements, because our diet 
cannot provide us with optimal amounts of nutrients. Indeed, if you live on 
cereal and toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and a standard dinner 
you will not provide your body with optimal amounts of nutrition and you 
will have to take supplements. The diet, which is described in this book, 
will provide you with concentrated amounts of nutrition in a natural form, 
which the body recognises and knows what to do with. luicing will add 
more concentrated amounts of vitamins, minerals and other useful sub­
stances. A good probiotic on average increases absorption rate of nutrients 
from food by 50% or more. On top of that probiotic bacteria are supposed 
to be the main source of vitamins B, K, bio tin and many other substances 
in the body. Indeed, that is the first group of nutritional deficiencies which 
usually disappear when the patient starts taking therapeutic doses of a 
strong probiotic. The diet and probiotic will start healing the digestive 
system, so the patient will start absorbing the nutrients from the food 
properly. Another important point we have to consider when it comes to our GAPS 
patients is that their digestive system is inflamed and damaged. A lot of 
synthetic supplements, fillers and binders in tablets and capsules will 
aggravate and irritate already sensitive GAPS gut lining and interfere with 
the healing process. I have seen many patients who put a lot of effort into 
implementing the diet, but would not achieve the best results until they 
removed most of their supplements. That is why I normally do not recommend any vitamin or mineral sup­
plementation at the beginning of the programme. I recommend putting 
most effort into implementing the diet first and starting the healing pro­
cess in the gut. Once the digestive system starts working properly in many 
patients their nutritional deficiencies disappear without any supplemen­
tation! They disappear the natural way through the body sorting it out for 
itself. Of course, aU patients are different and some of them require targeted 
supplementation. But that is a matter for a qualified practitioner to decide. Here are some important points to keep in mind. • Choose supplements without any ingredients which may aggravate 
the gut condition. Supplements in a liquid form are better than in 
powder, tablet or capsule. Substances, which are not allowed on the 
diet, should also be out. • Choose supplements with a high absorption rate, for example, vita­
min and mineral supplements with added fulvic acid. Fulvic acid (not 
to be confused with folic acid) is produced by bacteria in soil. It can 
ensure a very high absorption rate for a supplement the natural way. It 
also has good chelating properties for heavy metals. Soil bacteria in 
your probiotic will provide your gut with this acid. • Keep supplements to an absolute minimum! DETOXIFICATION FOR 
PEOPLE WITH GAP SYNDROME 
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. Erma Bombeck 
We live in a polluted world. Every day we breath in car fumes and industrial 
wastes. We eat foods containing pesticides, herbicides and other agricul­
tural chemicals. We drink milk and eat meat from animals which are rou­
tinely given antibiotics, steroids and other drugs. We eat a countless 
number of various chemicals in processed foods. We use personal care 
products full of various chemicals shown to be carcinogenic and generally 
toxic for humans. Our modem energy-conserving homes and offices have 
become toxic places. Modern building materials, insulation, paints, 
domestic cleaning chemicals and fire retardants all outgas toxic sub­
stances which we breathe day in and day out. For example, chemical anal­
ysis on outgassing of common carpets and carpet adhesives in modern 
homes found considerable amounts of toxic substances such as formalde­
hyde, toluene, xylene, benzene, methacrylate, tetrachloroethylene, methyl 
naphthalene, phthalates and styrene. All these chemicals are known toxins 
for a human and we breathe them in large quantities all the time we are at 
home. Hospitals and shopping centres have even higher amounts of toxic 
substances in the air, that is why many people feel so tired and drained 
after a shopping trip or a long visit to a hospital. And as if all that is not 
enough, we routinely take prescription drugs, drink alcohol and smoke 
tobacco. So, how do we survive? How do we manage to live our lives, go to work, 
have children, without just dropping dead after our first breath of traffic-
jam air in the morning? We survive thanks to a very important system in our bodies. A system 
which until recently we did not know much about - a DETOXIFICATION 
SYSTEM. It is a system, which is like a cleaner in the body. It constantly cleans out 
all the toxins, produced as a result of normal body metabolism, and toxins 
arriving from the outside. It has got its headquarters in the liver and 
departments in every cell of the body. The sophistication and complexity 
of this system is staggering to even the most knowledgeable biochemists and there is a lot we still don't know about how it works so efficiently. But 
what we do know is that this system, in order to function well, has to have a 
constant supply of certain nutrients: zinc, magnesium, selenium, molyb­
denum and other minerals and trace elements, hundreds of enzymes, 
many amino acids and essential fats - all the substances which our GAPS 
children and adults are deficient in. Due to these deficiencies the detoxifi­
cation system cannot function at an optimum level in a GAPS person. At 
the same time this system is overloaded with work, because GAPS patients 
are very toxic people. Imagine a worker, who is being starved of food and 
drink, and at the same time is being given more and more work to do. How 
is he going to cope? He is going to put most of this work into a backlog, 
hoping for easier times when he would be able to attend to it. That is 
exactly what the detoxification system does in a GAPS patient - it stores 
various toxic substances in different tissues in the body in order to deal 
with them later. That is why when these patients are tested for heavy 
metals, petrochemicals and other toxins they always test positive. Unfortunately, a lot of these chemicals have affinity for fats and therefore 
get stored in body fats. A human brain and the rest of the nervous system 
have a very high proportion of fats in its tissues and become a storage site 
for these toxins. A brain clogged with toxicity cannot develop or function 
well. We see this very clearly in GAPS patients. So, what do we do? How do we lift off this toxic load from our GAPS chil­
dren's and adult's bodies to allow them to develop and function properly? The first and most obvious thing to do is to remove the main source of 
toxicity, which means cleaning up and healing the gut. However, removing the major source of toxicity is not enough. What do 
we do with all the toxins stored over the years in these patient's bodies? What do we do with all the heavy metals, which GAPS children and adults 
test positive for? In recent years a new treatment has emerged - chelation of heavy 
metals with chelating drugs, mainly DMSA (Dimercapto Succinic Acid) 
and Alfa-Lipoic Acid. It is a group of drugs initially used in the army for 
treating acute exposure to heavy metals and other toxic substances. It is a 
hot topic at the moment within the circles of parent groups of autistic chil­
dren. There are a number of practitioners, mainly in the USA, who will 
administer these drugs to autistic children and who claim benefits for this 
treatment. We hear stories from parents who feel that chelation has helped 
their child. However, there are a number of issues here, which a lot of people, including me, do not feel comfortable about. Chelating drugs are 
drugs. Like any drug they come with side effects and complications. These 
are not benign substances. I have great concerns at the idea of using these 
drugs without direct local medical supervision, let alone without regular 
blood monitoring. Let's have a look at some known problems. 1. DMSA and other chelating drugs cause dose-related bone marrow 
suppression, which manifests as neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, 
which can affect blood clotting and blood immune response to infec­
tions and other toxins. Patients, who are on a chelation programme 
have to have their blood composition monitored on a regular basis. In 
some children and adults this reaction is serious enough to discon­
tinue chelation. 2. Chelating drugs cause an explosion of pathological fungal and bacte­
rial growth in the gut, probably due to the immune system suppres­
sion. That is why doctors who practice chelation advise their patients 
to deal with their gut dysbiosis first before trying to chelate. Anybody 
who has any experience with treating gut dysbiosis knows how diffi­
cult it is to deal with it. GAPS patients have gut dysbiosis as their most 
basic and primary pathology and with all the experience in treating it 
we still cannot say whether you can completely get rid of it. 3. Apart from taking out heavy metals chelating drugs bind essential 
minerals as well and take them out of the body. They chelate zinc, for 
example, that is why zinc has to be supplemented in very high doses 
prior and during chelation. However, doctors who have an experience 
with supplementing zinc know that it has a very complex absorption 
mechanism, which requires normal stomach acidity. GAPS patients 
do not have normal stomach acidity, which impairs absorption of sup­
plemented zinc. On top of that we know that GAPS patients are 
already deficient in this essential mineral quite severely. Apart from 
zinc, chelating drugs chelate other essential minerals, which these 
patients are already deficient in, like magnesium, molybdenum and 
others. That is why chelation protocols include very heavy supple­
mentation with a large number of different nutrients. 4. Patients on chelating drugs show high amounts of enzymes called 
transaminases in their blood, which is an indication of liver damage, 
specifically damage to hepatocytes (liver cells). 5. Chelating drugs are contraindicated in people with any renal prob­
lems because they have a damaging effect on kidneys. Kidney function as well as liver function has to be regularly monitored during 
chelation. 6. During chelation a long list of side effects are reported by the parents 
of autistic children: regression in autistic symptoms, anorexia, fatigue, 
irritability, nausea, sleep disturbances, diarrhoea, flatulence, macu-
lar-papular skin rash. In some cases such serious complications were 
observed by doctors as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (severe toxic reac­
tion with high fever, diarrhoea, polyarthritis, erosive skin rash, 
myalgia, pneumonitis - usually treated with steroid medication), 
hemolysis (red blood cells destruction), as mentioned above, serious 
neutropenia (low count of blood cells, called neutrophils, which are 
involved in immune response) and thrombocytopenia (low count of 
thrombocytes, which are blood cells mainly responsible for blood 
clotting). 7. A number of autistic children are reported to be better while taking 
chelation drugs, but regress back to the previous state as soon as 
chelation stops. One explanation for this phenomenon may be that 
these children just re-accumulate heavy metals from the environment 
as soon as the chelation stops, because their own detox system is 
unable to deal with these metals. There is no hard or soft data available yet that chelation really works, 
only anecdotal evidence. There are a few studies on the way, which are 
trying to assess any improvements from chelation, but the success rate is 
still unknown. If GAPS patients do improve after chelation, we do not know 
yet to what extent they improve to justify puttingthem through all the risks 
and side-effects of this treatment, not to mention the expense. So, what do we do about all these heavy metals and other toxins lurking 
in our patient's bodies? We can't just forget about them. Well, there is a 
time-proven way of detoxifying, taking out of the body not just the heavy 
metals but a lot of other poisons as well without any side-effects or harmful 
complications. And a very tasty way too. Children in particular love it! This 
way is JUICING. Thousands of people all over the world freed themselves 
from the most deadly diseases with juicing, dozens of books have been 
published on this subject full of testimonies and hundreds of wonderful 
recipes. Some very big names in natural medicine strongly advocated juic­
ing and used it actively in the treatment of their patients - people like Dr 
Gerson and Dr Norman Walker for example. Hundreds of scientific studies 
have been published on the health benefits of fresh raw fruit and vegetables. Juices provide all the goodness from these fruit and vegetables 
in a concentrated form and in large amounts. For example to make a glass 
of carrot juice you need a pound of carrots. Nobody can eat a pound of 
carrots at once, but you can get all the nutrition from them by drinking the 
juice. On top of that juicing removes the fibre, which impairs absorption of 
many nutrients in fruit and vegetables and aggravates the condition in the 
already sensitive digestive system of a GAPS patient. The digestive system 
has virtually no work to do in digesting juices, they get absorbed in 20-25 
minutes, providing the body with a concentrated amount of nutrients. With juicing you can consume large quantities of fresh vegetables and fruit 
every day in the most digestible and pleasant form. A lot of GAPS children 
and adults would not eat fresh vegetables and fruit due to their texture. Drinking juices can solve this problem very efficiently. Some GAPS chil­
dren would not drink enough liquids either. Juices, being so tasty, can pro­
vide a good solution to this problem too. Drinking at least two cups of 
freshly extracted juice will provide your patient with many essential vita­
mins, magnesium, selenium, zinc and other minerals, amino acids and lots 
more nutrients, which GAPS people are deficient in. A combination of 
pineapple, carrot and a little bit of beetroot in the morning will prepare the 
digestive system for the coming meals, stimulate stomach acid production 
and pancreatic enzymes production. A mixture of carrot, apple, celery and 
beetroot has a wonderful liver-cleansing ability. Green juices from leafy 
vegetables (spinach, lettuce, parsley, dill, carrot and beet tops) with some 
tomato and lemon are a great source of magnesium and iron and good 
chelators of heavy metals. Cabbage, apple and celery juice stimulates 
digestive enzyme production and is a great kidney cleanser. There is an 
endless number of healthy and tasty variations you can make from what­
ever fruit and vegetables you have available at home. To make the juice 
taste nice, particularly for children, generally try to have 50% of less tasty 
but highly therapeutic ingredients: carrot, small amount of beetroot (no 
more than 5% of the juice mixture), celery, cabbage, lettuce, greens -
spinach, parsley, dill, basil, fresh nettle leaves, beet tops, carrot tops, white 
and red cabbage, and 50% of some tasty ingredients to disguise the taste of 
the rest of the ingredients: pineapple, apple, orange, grapefruit, grapes, 
mango, etc. (for more detail look in the recipe section). What about fibre? Drinking juices doesn't mean that the patient stops 
eating fresh fruit and vegetables. Providing there is no diarrhoea the GAPS 
person should carry on eating fruit and vegetables as usual. Treat the juices 
like a supplement of concentrated amounts of nutrients in a glass. They should be taken on an empty stomach 20-25 minutes before food and 2-27a 
hours after a meal. But can't we just buy juices in the shops? The answer is a big NO! Juices 
in the shops have been processed and pasteurised, which destroys all the 
enzymes and most vitamins and phytonutrients. They are a source of pro­
cessed sugar, which will feed abnormal bacteria and fungi in the gut, In 
freshly extracted juice the natural sugars are balanced with enzymes, min­
erals, and other nutrients which turn them into energy for the body. When 
you make your juice at home you knowwhatyou put into it, you knowthat 
it is fresh without any contamination and oxidation, and you can have 
great fun by mixing different fruit and vegetables together, making differ­
ent tasty combinations. There are a large number of books on juicing with 
wonderful recipes for every health problem and every occasion. To turn 
your juices into a powerful immune remedy consider adding black elder­
berries to it 
Black Elderberry 
Black Elderberry is a small tree, which grows pretty much everywhere from 
cold to very warm climates. In spring it bears clusters of tiny whitish flow­
ers which at the end of the summer turn into small juicy black berries. Medicinal properties of this plant have been appreciated for centuries. Its 
flowers, berries, leaves and bark were traditionally used for treating colds, 
pneumonia, flu, sore throat, hay fever, wounds, eye infections and many 
other ailments. In England the berries are still used for making elderberry 
wine, in Scandinavia the flowers are used for making elderflower cordial 
Black Elderberry has got strong immune-stimulating properties and it is 
one of the most powerful anti-viral remedies known to man. You do not have to be an experienced herbalist to use this plant. Many 
people have this tree in their gardens as it is quite decorative. At the end of 
the summer collect clusters of berries, a small bucket would be enough. Make sure that you collect ripe berries - ripe berries are very black and 
squashy. At home separate the berries from their twigs using a fork. Put the 
berries into small plastic bags or small containers and freeze them. From 
the end of summer/beginning of autumn make it your bed-time routine to 
take i~2 tablespoons of berries out of the freezer and leave them at room 
temperature to defrost overnight In the morning juice them together with 
pineapple, carrot or any other fruit and vegetables you planned to use. If 
you do it every day or every other day throughout the cold season your family will not have any colds. A small amount of 1-2 tablespoons of berries 
is enough for a family of four. If you are juicing just for one person, then 
one teaspoon is enough. Apart from juicing you can add elderberries into 
your cakes. You can also collect flowers in spring and freeze them. During the winter 
they would make a very pleasant aromatic tea or you can just crush them, 
while frozen, with your hand and add them to your salads. The flowers also 
have strong immune-stimulating properties. Use them as a tea to remedy 
colds, flu and fever. The same tea can be used topically on wounds and 
grazes, sunburn, frostbites and sore eyes. It is also a traditional remedy for 
hay fever. I can just hear somebody saying "I am a very busy person and do not 
have time to be collecting berries and flowers!" But even the busiest person 
has got weekends. Isn't it a pleasure to spend a day with your family out in 
the country, when you can collect elderberries? When you come home in 
the evening and slump in front of your TV, you can separate the berries 
from their twigs with a fork and put them into small freezer bags, while 
watching your favourite programme. When the programme is finished, you 
can put the bags into your freezer. Not that much of an effort for having a 
winter supply of a wonderful immune-stimulating remedy. And it will cost 
you absolutely nothing! The general toxic load 
An important part of the treatment is reduction in the general toxic load 
on the patient's detoxification system as much as possible. What is a gen­
eral toxic load? Anything toxic we eat, breathe, touch or put on our skin 
absorbs very quickly and puts another workload on our detoxification 
system. In a GAPS person his or her gut is the major source of toxicity over­
loading the detox system with too much work. It is not sensible to add 
more to that work by exposing the patient to toxic and carcinogenic sub™ 
stances from the environment What substances are we talking about? The patient's house should be kept as chemical free as possible by using 
minimal amounts of domestic cleaning chemicals, paints, carpet pesti­
cides and other toxic substances. All widely available domestic chemicals 
are toxic. Bathroom detergents, floor cleaners, polishes, etc. all stay in the 
air and on the surfaces contributing to the general toxic load on the 
patient's detox system. Toxic domestic chemicals can be replaced with 
safer bio-degradable alternatives from various conscientious companies. However, generally try to use as little as possible. A lot of cleaning around 
the house can be done with just water and a bit of vinegar or lemon juice, 
bicarbonate of soda and olive oil. You can clean your wood floors with 
strong tea. You can polish your furniture with a mixture of 1 cup of olive oil 
with 7a cup of white vinegar. You can pour white wine on red wine spills on 
your carpet to remove the stain. It is wise not to re-decorate the house or install new carpets or furniture 
while the patient is trying to detoxify. Paints, many building materials, new 
carpets, new furniture outgas a plethora of extremely toxic chemicals 
which we absorb through our lungs, skin and mucous membranes. New 
carpet can outgas considerable amounts of highly carcinogenic formalde­
hyde for a few years. New furniture is full of fire retardants, which are great 
contributors of antimony (a toxic heavy metal) in our systems. Fresh 
household paints outgas dozens of extremely toxic chemicals into the air of 
the house for at least six months. Just recently I had a phone call from a 
parent of an autistic child who, apart from severe autism, had epilepsy. After implementing the GAPS nutritional protocol the seizures disap­
peared completely and the child was doing very well. Then, unfortunately, 
the parents decided to paint the walls in the house. The day the painter 
started work the child had a major epileptic fit. Epilepsy in a majority of 
cases, particularly in children, is caused by toxicity. Obviously, this child's 
detoxification system was not ready to take an onslaught of the extremely 
toxic chemicals which we can breathe in from paints. Very important contributors to the general toxic overload in the body are 
cosmetics, toiletries, perfumes and other personal care products. The per­
sonal care products industry is generally not regulated. More than a thou­
sand of various carcinogenic and toxic chemicals are widely used in formu­
lation of shampoos, soaps, toothpaste, cosmetics, perfumes, creams, etc. The old opinion that our skin is a barrier and does not let toxins in has 
proven to be completely wrong. Human skin absorbs most things from the 
environment very efficiently, in some cases even better than our digestive 
system. Toxins, which go into the body through the digestive system, have 
to pass through the liver, where most of them get broken down and ren­
dered benign. That is why the pharmaceutical industry recently started 
producing more and more drugs which are applied to the skin as patches, 
because the skin absorbs them better than the digestive system and they 
get straight into the bloodstream without passing the test of the liver. The 
wide use of personal care products is a major contributor to our cancer 
epidemic. Children, women and men are unknowingly exposing themselves to huge amounts of carcinogenic substances, which they apply 
to their skin. A good example is breast cancer. Cells removed from a can­
cerous breast in many cases are full of aluminium - a toxic heavy metal. Where does all this aluminium come from? Probably from not far away -
from the deodorants, absorbed through the skin in the woman's armpits. Recent research into heavy metals showed that when a pregnant animal is 
exposed to them they accumulate in large amounts in the foetus. That is 
why it is particularly important for a pregnant or breast-feeding mother to 
be careful what personal products and cosmetics she puts on her skin, face 
and hair. In this book we cannot go into the details of all toxins present in 
our toiletries and cosmetics. But let us list some of the most common ones. • Talc or talcum powder can cause ovarian cancer. Do not use it, partic­
ularly on babies! • Sodium Lauryl (Laureth) Sulfate (SLS) - highly toxic detergent and is 
present in most shampoos, soaps and toothpaste. • Fluoride - a terrible poison for every system in the body. Widespread 
in toothpaste and other dental care products. It is added to some 
water supplies and given to babies as drops. If you are not familiar 
with its toxicity I would strongly advise you to learn more about it and 
avoid it like the plague. • Titanium Dioxide - carcinogenic. • Triethanolamine (TEA) and Diethanolamine (DEA) form carcinogenic 
nitrosamines. • Lanolin, itself a non-toxic natural substance is often contaminated 
with DDT and other carcinogenic pesticides. • Dioxanes are inhaled and absorbed through skin - highly carcino­
genic. • Saccharin - carcinogenic. • Formaldehyde - a toxic and carcinogenic substance. • Propylene Glycol - carcinogenic. • Lead, aluminium and other heavy metals are present in many per­
sonal care products, particularly in deodorants and make-up. In patients with GAP syndrome use of personal care products should be 
reduced to an absolute minimum. The body does not need washing with 
soaps, shower gels or bubble baths. They not only contribute to the general 
toxic overload, but they also wash off important oils, which protect the skin 
from infections and drying out. Washing with water and a sponge should 
be quite enough. A child does not need any personal care products apart from natural 
toothpaste. There are number of companies who produce safe personal 
care products without harmful substances, listed above. To assist elimination of toxins through the skin, give your child a bath 
every night before bed. Instead of bath soaps, add a cup of cider vinegar to 
the bath, it will help to normalise the pH of the skin and encourage appro­
priate skin flora, as well as assisting the detoxification process. On alter­
nate days add a cup of Epsom Salt to the bath, which will also assist in the 
detoxification process. Air your house regularly and let your child spend as 
much time as possible in the fresh air. Swimming pools are very toxic places. People generally believe that 
going to the swimming pool is a healthy exercise. This cannot be further 
from the truth. Apart from a few rare pools in the world, sterilised with 
ozone, the rest of them use chlorine-based chemicals for sterilising the 
water. Chlorine is a poison, which affects every system in the body, partic­
ularly the immune system and liver. It absorbs quite well through the skin. But apart from that a thick layer of chlorine gas is floating above the swim­
ming pool water, which children and adults inhale while swimming. Inhaled chlorine absorbs extremely well through the lungs into the blood­
stream. GAPS patients are already very toxic. Swimming in a chlorinated 
pool would add to that toxicity. GAPS people should swim in the natural waters of lakes, rivers and sea 
instead of the toxic chemical soup of swimming pools. Natural waters are 
full of life, biological energy from plants and different creatures, minerals, 
enzymes and many other beneficial substances. Swimming in natural 
living waters has been prized as a therapy for many health problems for 
centuries. Obviously, you have to make sure that the water you swim in is 
as far as possible from any source of industrial pollution. Washing powders and liquids all stay in the fabric of our clothes, 
bedding and towels and also contribute to the toxic overload. Try to look 
for safer ecologically friendly alternatives. Houseplants are our great friends when it comes to keeping our houses 
toxin free. They consume the toxic gases and replace them with oxygen and 
other beneficial substances. Fill your house with geraniums, ivies, spider 
plants, Aloe Vera, ficuses and many other varieties of houseplants. The 
more the merrier, particularly in your bedrooms! Keep your houseplants 
healthy, don't let them become mouldy, as some GAPS people may react to 
moulds. Detoxification and reducing exposure to environmental toxins has to be 
an important part of the treatment of GAP Syndrome. Normalising gut 
ilora, appropriate nourishing diet, clean water, juicing and avoiding expo­
sure to toxins are the natural measures which work very well and without 
any side effects! A healthy body is clean inside! Happy cleaning! PART THREE: 
DIFFERENT ISSUES 
i. EAR INFECTIONS 
AND GLUE EAR 
Ear infections and glue ear are the most common reasons why GAPS chil­
dren are prescribed so many antibiotics in their first years of life. But if we 
look at ear infections and glue ear on their own, we will see another epi­
demic. Ear infections account for more than a third of all visits to GPs. Around two-thirds of all children in the western world have ear infections 
at some time every year, with one-third having more than four ear infec­
tions a year. Why do we have this epidemic? Why do so many children finish up with 
ear grommets after endless courses of antibiotics for acute ear infections? To understand this phenomenon we have to look at the structure of the 
ear. Ear infections happen in the middle ear, which is quite a small enclosed 
space - its volume is about 1 cubic cm. Its main function is to pass the 
sound from the eardrum to the inner ear, which it does very efficiently with 
a system of three interconnected tiny bones. The middle ear is filled with 
air and is separated from the outer ear canal by the eardrum. However, it is 
connected with the outside world with a tube called auditory or 
Eustachian tube. This tube is the most important player in ear infections 
and glue ear, so I would like to concentrate on it in detail. The Eustachian tube stretches from the inside wall of middle ear to the 
nasopharynx (back of your nose and throat), where it opens quite near the 
back of the nose. The major function of this tube is to equalise the pressure 
in the middle ear with the atmospheric pressure. The opening of the 
Eustachian tube in the pharynx is guarded by a lump of lymphoid tissue, FIG. 8 Interconnecting structure of the middle ear and pharynx. called the Tube Tonsil (FIG. 8). These tube tonsils are a part of the immune 
system. Their function is to prevent infectious agents from getting through 
the nose and throat into the Eustachian tubes and the middle ear. There is 
one situation when we feel the presence of tube tonsils very well. I am sure 
that everybody recalls that blocked ears feeling when flying on the aero­
planes. What happens is that the tube tonsils can get inflamed and swollen 
due to infection in your nose or throat or simply due to the plane's air con­
ditioning. When the tube tonsils get swollen, they block the entrance into 
the Eustachian tubes. As a result the pressure inside your middle ear 
cannot be equalised with the changing atmospheric pressure when the 
plane is taking off or landing, which gives you that muffled hearing and 
pain in the affected ear. Swallowing, yawning, chewing, and holding the 
nose and mouth shut while gently trying to force air out of the lungs 
stretches the opening of the Eustachian tube and allows the air into the 
middle ear. But if the tube tonsils are swollen too much these measures 
usually don't work. The Eustachian tube is the most obvious way for any infection to get into 
the middle ear. However, it is not so simple. The mucous membranes of the Eustachian tubes are covered by ciliated 
epithelium and contain a lot of mucus glands and lymphatic follicles. Ciliated epithelium is a layer of cells with tiny hair on them. These hair are 
normally pointing away from the middle ear to the direction of the 
nasopharynx providing an effective barrier for any debris from food or air 
trying to get into the middle ear from the nose and the mouth. The numer­
ous mucous producing cells in the walls of the Eustachian tubes are con­
stantly cleaning the tubes up with their mucous secretions, which are 
moving along the direction of the tiny hair of the ciliated epithelium down 
into the back of your nose. In order for any infection to get into the middle 
ear it would have to struggle against this flow of mucous. But if any infec­
tious agents do manage to get into the Eustachian tube, the lymphatic 
follicles in its walls, which are part of the immune system, will launch their 
attack and finish the invader off. And, of course, before the infection even 
gets into the Eustachian tube it has to pass the first barrier - the tube tonsil, 
which is a concentration of immune cells specially designed to stop any 
invader. This combination of factors provides a pretty formidable defence 
for the middle ear! In healthy children it works very well indeed. Why don't 
these defences work in so many children? How does the infection get 
through all these barriers? Why do we have an epidemic of ear infections 
and glue ear? Here we come to a very important point. The mouth, nose, throat, 
Eustachian tubes and middle ear of a newborn baby are sterile. Fairly soon 
after birth the mouth, nose and throat get populated by a varied mixture of 
microbes, coming from the environment, mum, dad and anybody else, 
who is in contact with the child. Just as it happens with the gut, due to 
various factors which we have discussed, many children develop abnormal 
flora in that area. This will do two things. First - the epithelium of 
Eustachian tubes will start producing too much mucous in order to protect 
and clean itself. Second - the tube tonsils will be in a chronic state of 
inflammation, blocking the entrance into the tubes and not allowing the 
mucous to drain out. Fairly quickly the middle ear fills up with mucous. This situation is called the glue ear. Mucous will not allow appropriate pas­
sage of sound through the middle ear impairing the child's hearing and 
hence development. A lot of children with glue ear do not become autistic, 
for example, but their general learning abilities suffer. Speech delay is very 
common among these children. The mucous which fills their middle ear 
would provide a good growing environment for any infection which may 
come along from the back of the nose through the Eustachian tube. When 
that happens the child gets typical symptoms of ear infection - pain and 
fever, when antibiotics are usually prescribed. Antibiotics would clear 
away the infectious agent, but they would not remove the glue ear. In fact 
in the long run they make the situation worse by altering the bacterial flora 
in the nose and throat even further. So, with the middle ear still filled with 
mucous, a good medium for growing bacteria, predictably the ear infection 
happens again and fairly soon. Having suffered numerous ear infections, 
many children finish up with little pipes, called grommets put through 
their eardrum in order to provide another channel for draining the mucous 
from the middle ear. This operation is a symptomatic measure, but it usu­
ally resolves the problem of glue ear and stops the chain of constant ear 
infections. So, the epithelium of the middle ear and Eustachian tube will 
still be producing a lot of mucous and the natural channel for draining this 
mucous will still be blocked, but the mucous now will drain through an 
artificial pipe - grommet into the outside. As we said, grommets are a symptomatic measure, a crutch in a way, 
which does not remove the real problem. The real problem is an abnormal 
flora developed in the child's nose and throat. Practise shows that when 
that flora is normalised, the glue ear and ear infections disappear. Two 
things have to be done to normalise bacterial flora in that area. First  - the diet should not provide food for abnormal bacteria. As we discussed in earlier chapters these foods are sugar, milk and processed 
carbohydrates. It is amazing how quickly glue ear resolves when these 
foods are taken out of the diet. A second  important measure is adding a strong therapeutic probiotic to 
the child's regimen. The beneficial bacteria in the probiotic would help to 
clear out pathogenic flora and re-establish normal healthy flora in the 
mouth, nose and throat, which would keep the child clear from ear infec­
tions. To do that, apart from adding a probiotic to the food, I routinely sug­
gest to the parents of children whom I see in my clinic to open a capsule of 
probiotic and put the powder on the child's tongue last thing before bed, 
after the child has cleaned his teeth and is not going to eat or drink any 
more. This way the probiotic bacteria will have a chance to work on the 
flora of the mouth and throat all night. As the back of the nose and the back 
of the mouth both open to the same place, the probiotic bacteria have a 
good chance of reaching the back of the nose, where the tube tonsils are, 
and deal with any pathogenic flora in that area. On top of that, the stimula­
tion of the immune responses, which the probiotics produce, would also 
help to clear out any infection. As a result the inflammation would subside 
and the tube tonsils would resume their normal size and not block the 
Eustachian tubes any more, allowing mucous to drain from the middle ear. This will resolve glue ear and the constant chain of ear infections. Another common contributing factor to ear infections are food allergies, 
particularly allergy to milk. In the previous chapters we have discussed what 
role the gut flora plays in the development of food allergies. With the use of 
diet and probiotics we can improve the state of the gut flora and the immune 
system in the child's body. Clinical experience shows that a lot of food aller­
gies disappear as the gut heals. In the meantime it is a good idea to remove 
the foods, which the child may be allergic to, particularly cow's milk. However, it takes time to change the child's diet and to establish normal 
bacterial flora in the throat. What do we do as an immediate response to an 
ear infection? Unfortunately, a very common thing that happens is the prescription of 
antibiotics. It is a routine response of the medical profession pretty much 
everywhere in the western world. We have discussed in detail what anti­
biotics do to the bodily flora (in the gut, on the skin, on all mucous mem­
branes, including the nose, throat and ears). Though the course of anti­
biotics would clear that particular ear infection, it would lay the ground for 
the next one to come. Apart from destroying the beneficial bacteria, anti­
biotics are usually given to small children in a syrup, which would provide concentrated amounts of sugars and starches to encourage the growth of 
pathogenic microbes in the throat, many of which are resistant to the 
antibiotic in that syrup. As a result these pathogens start growing even 
while the antibiotic is being administered. Many children, whom I see, 
have another ear infection pretty much as soon as the course of antibiotic 
finishes. Unfortunately, in these cases children are put on a permanent 
antibiotic for many months, which would cause a very deep damage to the 
child's bodilyflora and immune system. There have been comparison studies done, where one group of children 
with an ear infection was treated with antibiotics and another group 
received no treatment. The result of these studies was the same - there is 
no difference in the outcome of an ear infection after an antibiotic treat­
ment or doing nothing at all. So, if you leave a child with an ear infection without any treatment, he or 
she will recover just as well. However, there is no need to leave the child 
without any help. People treated ear infections very effectively for 
centuries with simple home remedies. Here are some recommendations. 1. If you can manage it keep your child indoors until the ear infection 
resolves itself. Keep.your child warm all the time. Put a knitted 
woollen hat on your child, and a warm jumper while indoors and let 
your child wear a warm hat at all times - during the day and at night. 2. Give your child plenty of hot drinks. Just hot water with a slice of 
lemon and a spoon of honey is sufficient. Sit your child on your lap 
andgivehim or her this drinkfroma teaspoon, taking great care not to 
burn the child but to let him have this drink as hot as possible. Put 
some probiotic powder on his/her tongue after finishing the drink. If it 
is difficult to get your child to take the powder, mix it in a teaspoon of 
warm water and give him this teaspoon straight after finishing the 
drink. Remember that probiotic contains live bacteria, which will 
be killed by hot water, so mix it with warm or cool water. Instead of just water with lemon and honey, you can make some 
herbal teas: camomile, calendula, marjoram, eucalyptus and thyme 
all have anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties. Make sure that 
you get the pure herb itself without any additives. Put a teaspoon of 
the herb into your teapot, pour over boiling water, cover and let it 
brew for 5 minutes. Pour this tea through a sieve into a teacup, add 
some honey and give it to your child spoon by spoon. After finishing 
the tea, follow with the spoonful of probiotic powder on the tongue. 3, Take 1-2 tablespoons of cold pressed olive oil and mix in a crushed 
clove of garlic. Leave it for 30 minutes, strain through a sieve or 
cheese-cloth. Put a few drops of this oil into your child's ear every 
hour, particularly before going to bed. Keep this oil at a room temper­
ature and warm it up slightly before putting into your child's ear. To 
warm this oil up, stand the cup with the oil in a dish with warm water 
(not hot though, as it will reduce the oil's effectiveness). Do not 
microwave this oil, as all the enzymes and other active substances in it 
will be destroyed. Every day make a fresh mixture. The fresher it is the 
more effective it will be. There are some commercial preparations 
available as natural ear drops, containing olive oil with some garlic oil, 
lavender oil, calendula and other natural herbs. 4. The old onion remedy. Take a large white onion, chop it up finely and 
wrap it into a piece of cotton cloth. Put it into a microwave and warm 
it up fairly hot but tolerable to the touch. Put it on your child's ear and 
securely cover with a warm hat (a soft woollen knitted hat is best). You 
can put a piece of cling film between the onion wrap and the hat, so 
the onion juice does not soak the hat. Keep it on your child's ear until 
it starts cooling down. Warm it up again in the microwave and repeat 
the application. This procedure is very relaxing for the child and is 
very good to do at bedtime. It is a bit messy and makes your child 
smell of onion, but works amazingly well. After this procedure keep 
the warm hat on your child and let him/her go to sleep on the side of 
the affected ear to keep it warm. If your child run s a fever below 38°C (ioo°F), you do not need to reduce it. The fever is the body's way of fighting the infection. However, temperature 
above 38°C (ioo°F) should be reduced as it can be harmful. Unfortunately, 
all anti-inflammatory preparations for children are made with syrup, Ml of 
sugars and starches, which should be avoided. I recommend the parents to 
use Aspirin for children (if there is no allergy to Aspirin), which is very 
effective in reducing pain and inflammation. Get Soluble Aspirin in small 
75mg tablets, dissolve half a tablet in warm water and give to your child as 
a drink with some honey. You can also dissolve it in his cup of hot herbal 
tea. Aspirin should never be given on an empty stomach as it may irritate 
the stomach lining. Let your child eat something first before giving 
him/her Aspirin. Aspirin is a very safe medicine and has been given to children for 
decades until a very rare and obscure condition was described, called Reye's syndrome. A whole host of drugs, pesticides and other chemicals 
can cause this condition. This association with Reye's syndrome has led to 
the withdrawal of aspirin from routine use in children in the USA and UK, 
though it is still used for many childhood rheumatic conditions. Consequently, aspirin got replaced by paracetamol for use as a painkiller 
and anti-inflammatory in children. Yet, paracetamol is far more dangerous 
a drug than aspirin will ever be. Because paracetamol is extremely bitter it 
has to be mixed with very concentrated sugary substances to disguise its 
taste. We know that children with GAP syndrome should avoid sugars. Aspirin has a very mild taste and is very easy to give to children. It is one of 
the safest and oldest medicines used for all inflammatory conditions. Apart from reducing inflammation and pain it will improve blood circula­
tion in the body. As a result, quite often an administration of Aspirin 
relieves an ear infection very well on its own possibly by allowing the 
mucous to drain from the middle ear. A caution: if your child has got any rare genetic condition, liver impair­
ment or kidney impairment, always consult your doctor before using any 
medication, including Aspirin. All these measures should be applied as early as possible. If after 2-3 
days the pain and fever are not getting any better you may have to resolve 
to antibiotics. However, in the majority of cases these natural treatments 
work very well and the child recovers without any help from the doctor. In 
the meantime it is a good idea to start the long-term intervention (diet and 
probiotics) as soon as possible to prevent any future ear infections. 2. TOP TEN INFLUENCES, 
WHICH BOOST IMMUNITY 
1. Cold pressed oils: olive oil, fish oils, nut and seed oils. 2. Fresh eggs, particularly raw egg yolk. 3. Onions and garlic. 4. Freshly pressed vegetable and fruit juices. 5. Regular consumption of greens: parsley, dill, coriander, spring 
onion and garlic, etc. 6. Probiotic supplementation and fermented foods. 7. Contact with animals: horses, dogs, etc. Having a pet in the family 
can do a lot for children's immune status. 8. Physical activity in the fresh air. 9. Swimming in unpolluted natural waters: lakes, rivers and sea. IO. Exposure to sunlight and sensible sunbathing. 3- TOP TEN INFLUENCES, 
WHICH DAMAGE IMMUNITY 
1. Sugar and everything containing it: sweets, soft drinks, confec­
tionery, ice-cream, etc. 2. Processed carbohydrates: cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks, breakfast 
cereals, white bread and pasta. 3.
Gut_and_Psychology_Syndrome.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Children with vitamin A deficiency can be given as 
much as 60,000 micrograms of vitamin A as a single dose. A lot of parents are concerned about overdosing on vitamin A. Indeed in 
excess this vitamin can be toxic. However, to reach toxic levels you have to 
have more than 10 times the recommended daily allowance for a period of 
weeks to years. For an adult that is 20 teaspoons of cod liver oil every day 
for weeks or years. For a small child -10 teaspoons a day. I cannot imagine 
anybody taking that amount of cod liver oil once, let along on a regular 
basis. To cause an acute toxicity an adult has to have 100 times more than 
the recommended dose and a child - 20 times more, which translates into 
20 teaspoons of cod liver oil for a child of three years of age. GAPS patients may benefit from larger doses, than the recommended 
daily allowances. To be completely scientific about it the person should be 
tested for vitamin A status and according to the result of the test the indi­
vidual dose can be established, taking into account that absorption of this 
vitamin can be poor in a GAPS gut. The initial dose may be quite large. Then of course the patient has to be re-tested on a regular basis to re­
adjust the dose. However, in real life the majority of patients cannot do that 
for various practical reasons. I generally recommend following RDA according to age. This amount of 
cod liver oil on a regular basis over time would gently correct vitamin A 
deficiency. The diet, which we have talked about, would also provide con­
siderable amounts of this valuable vitamin. The whole nutritional pro­
gramme over time would restore proper digestion and absorption of this 
vitamin, as well as many other nutrients. 4. DIGESTIVE ENZYMES 
1. Hypochlorhydria 
People with abnormal gut flora almost without exception have low stomach 
acid production. Toxins produced by overgrowth of Candida species, Clostridia 
and other pathogens have a strong ability to reduce secretion of stomach acid. What does it mean and why is it important. The stomach is the place where protein digestion begins. Hydrochloric 
acid produced by the stomach walls activates pepsin, a protein-digesting 
enzyme, which starts breaking down the very complex structure of dietary 
proteins into peptides and amino acids. To do its work properly pepsin 
needs the pH of the stomach to be 3 or below. In hypochlorhydria not 
enough acid is produced, so the pH in the stomach is not low enough for 
pepsin to do its job properly. The most studied proteins in connection with GAPS conditions, particu­
larly autism and schizophrenia, are gluten and casein. In these patients the 
digestive system converts them into opiate-like substances, called caso­
morphin and gliadomorphin, which are thought to find their way to the 
patient's brain and block a lot of normal brain activity and development. The digestion of casein and gluten, just as digestion of all other proteins, 
starts in the stomach. In a child or an adult with low stomach acidity this 
digestive process goes wrong from the beginning, which sets up the scene 
for the formation of casomorphin and gliadomorphin. DrW. Shaw, in the 
revised edition of his book Biological Treatments for Autism andPDD, gives 
an interesting example of a child, who had a very severe withdrawal re­
action, when casein and gluten were taken out of his diet, with violent 
behaviour and refusal to eat or drink. Indeed withdrawal of opiates in drug 
addiction can be extremely dramatic. But in this child the withdrawal 
symptoms were temporarily relieved by regular administration of Alka-
Seltzer Gold. Now why would simple bicarbonate Alka-Seltzer Gold have 
such an effect. Maybe the answer is that by neutralising whatever little 
stomach acid the child had, Alka-Seltzer Gold interfered with the digestion 
of other dietary proteins with production of other opiate-like peptides, 
which were giving this child a temporary "morphine fix", reducing the 
withdrawal symptoms. As a result of low stomach acid production the whole process of protein 
digestion in the body goes wrong from the very beginning. The 
maldigested protein then passes through into the small intestine. The 
intestinal wall and pancreatic enzymes, which accomplish further steps in 
the protein digestion, expect the protein to arrive from the stomach in a 
particular form in order to do their job properly. It is like a conveyer belt or 
an assembly line in a factory. If the first person does a poor job, then no 
matter how well the rest of the people in the line may work, the end pro­
duct is likely to be of a poor quality. However, what happens in the body is 
even worse. The problem is that in the body "the rest of the line" cannot 
work properly either, because it is regulated by the "first person". This first 
person is the stomach acid. Stomach acidity is the major regulator of pan­
creatic and liver ability to respond to arriving food. In a normal situation 
food coming from the stomach into the duodenum has to have a pH of 2 or 
below to stimulate production of two very important players in the whole 
digestive process. These players are two hormones, produced by the walls 
of the duodenum, which get absorbed into the blood and carried to the 
pancreas, liver, stomach and many other organs in the body. These hor­
mones are secretin and cholecystokinin. The first hormone, secretin, gives 
the stomach a command to stop producing its juices, stimulates the liver to 
produce bile and lets the intestinal lining know that food is coming, so it 
makes enough mucous to protect itself. But the most important thing that 
it does is to stimulate the pancreas to produce alkalising bicarbonate solu­
tion to neutralise the acid in the food, which has just arrived from the 
stomach, because normally the duodenum and the rest of the small intes­
tine have a far more alkaline pH. This alkaline pH is essential for pancreatic 
enzymes to do their job of digesting proteins, fats and carbohydrates. By 
stimulating production of bicarbonate secretin prepares the food for the 
digestive enzymes coming from the pancreas. To produce these digestive enzymes the pancreas needs the command 
of the second hormone - cholecystokinin. If cholecystokinin is not made 
by the walls of the duodenum because of too little acid coming from the 
stomach with the food, then the pancreas will be sitting there idly and not 
producing its digestive enzymes to deal with that food. In addition, chole­
cystokinin tells the stomach to stop its activity, makes the gallbladder 
empty its bile into the duodenum, ready to digest fats, and opens the gates 
for pancreatic juices to flow and start digesting arriving food (F1G. 7). These two hormones are so important in normal food digestion that 
without them this digestion simply cannot happen. Unfortunately, in a person with low stomach acidity that is exactly what happens. The food 
comes from the stomach not acid enough to trigger the production of 
secretin and cholecystokinin. So, the pancreas does not produce its juices 
and bile is not secreted to work on the fats. Maldigestion and malabsorp­
tion follow. Partially digested proteins, like casomorphin and gliadomor­
phin and many others get produced and absorbed through the damaged 
leaky intestinal wall, acting as opiates in the brain. Other maldigested pro­
teins cause allergies and autoimmune reactions, draining an already com­
promised immune system even further. A lot of essential vitamins, amino 
acids and minerals do not get absorbed, causing nutritional deficiencies. Maldigested carbohydrates get consumed by abnormal flora, which con­
verts them into alcohol, acetaldehyde and a whole host of other toxins. Fats 
do not get digested, which makes the person deficient in extremely impor­
tant fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, essential fatty acids, and gives the 
person pale floating stool or diarrhoea. Undigested food simply rots in the 
digestive tract, poisoning the whole body. Secretin has received a lot of publicity in autistic circles since some cases 
of great improvements were seen after injecting autistic children with 
secretin. Soon homeopathic forms of this hormone became available. Cholecystokinin is available as a supplement in the USA and some parents 
who tried it with their children apparently reported similar to secretin 
effect. Unfortunately, the majority of autistic children show very little or no 
response to this treatment, because secretin is only one factor in a very 
complex digestive process. Normalising stomach acid production is a far 
more important intervention in order to put the whole digestive process 
right from the beginning. Apart from literally ruining the whole digestive process, lack of acid in 
the stomach has other serious implications. Stomach acid is the first barrier for huge numbers of microbes arriving 
with every bit of food or drink we put into our mouths. If the stomach is not 
acid enough, these microbes have a good chance of getting into the 
intestines, which they would colonise and cause trouble. They even start 
growing in the stomach itself. Normally the stomach is the least-populated 
area of the digestive system due to its extremely acid environment. However, in a person with hypochlorhydria all sorts of pathogenic and 
opportunistic bacteria and fungi can grow on the stomach wall, such as 
Helicobacter pylori, Campylobacter pylori, Enterobacterial Candida, 
Salmonella, E. coli, Streptococci, etc. The most research in this area has been 
done in stomach cancer patients, the majority of which show low levels of FIG. 7 Regulation of digestive process by the stomach acid. stomach acid production. Microbes, which populate low acid stomach play 
a very important role in causing stomach cancer, ulcers and gastritis. Of course, most of these microbes love to eat carbohydrates, particularly 
the processed kind. The digestion of carbohydrates starts in the mouth with 
the action of saliva. When the food arrives into the stomach in the normal 
situation stomach acid stops this digestion. So, carbohydrates have to wait 
until they arrive at the duodenum to be digested. But in the stomach with 
low acidity overgrowing microbes start fermenting dietary carbohydrates, 
often with the production of various toxins and gas, which can make it very 
uncomfortable for the GAPS child or adult and make them refuse food. So, what do we do. I believe that GAPS patients need supplementation with stomach acid. The most physiological preparation available on the market is Betaine HC1 
with added Pepsin. One capsule usually provides 200-300 mg of Betaine 
HC1 and loomg of Pepsin. It should be taken at the beginning of each meal. The capsules usually contain an adult dose. However, I find that children as 
young as eight can take this dose without any trouble. To determine the 
right dose for your child start from a small pinch of the powder added to 
the first spoonfuls of the meal. In two to three days increase to two pinches 
and so on. For children from 18 months to 24 months one pinch is usually 
enough. For two to three year olds two to three pinches. For four to six year 
olds half a capsule is enough. For six and older from half to a full capsule. Children older than 10 and adults may need two capsules at the beginning 
of each meal. A lot of parents report great improvement in their child's 
stool in just a few days from starting Betaine HC1 with Pepsin. Make sure 
that you do not give probiotic to your child together with Betaine HC1 as 
the acid is likely to destroy the probiotic bacteria. Give the probiotic first 
thing in the morning, between food or after food when the stomach acid is 
at its lowest. Apart from supplementing stomach acid there are natural things we can 
do to stimulate the body to produce its own stomach acid. Cabbage juice is 
one of the strongest stimulants. Having a few spoonfuls of cabbage juice or 
a small cabbage salad before the meal will help to digest that meal. Sauerkraut and its juice are even stronger. A small helping of sauerkraut or 
a few tablespoons of its juice will prepare the stomach for the arriving food. Having a cup of home-made meat stock with your meal will also help to 
increase stomach acidity. With children the easiest thing to do is to give 
them a cup of home-made meat stock with a few spoonfuls of sauerkraut 
juice or cabbage juice mixed in it. 2. Pancreatic Enzymes 
These are the enzymes that people are talking about when they say "diges­
tive enzymes". They usually include a mixture of proteases, peptidases, 
lipases, amylase, lactase and cellulase, which normally would be breaking 
down your food in the small intestine. In a healthy digestive tract most of 
these enzymes are produced by the pancreas. If we can restore normal 
stomach acidity then this stage in digestion should go without any prob­
lem, because the stomach acid would trigger the pancreas to produce its 
own enzymes. That is why I consider restoring the stomach acid level far 
more important than supplementingparicreatic enzymes. There has been a polemic in autistic circles about supplementing some 
peptidases and proteases to replace the diet (meaning the GFCF diet, of 
course). The idea was that these enzymes would break down gluten and 
casein, so that there would be no need to struggle with implementing the 
diet. Not surprisingly this approach did not work for the majority of 
people, because enzymes can never replace a diet. The diet, which we 
describe in this book is designed to heal the gut and to re-establish normal 
gut flora. No enzyme can do that. Generally in my clinical experience I see a lot of improvement from sup­
plementing stomach acid. However, I do not see much happening from 
supplementing pancreatic enzymes. If the patient feels that they really 
help then there is no reason why he or she should not take them, providing 
the tablet does not contain fillers or binders which may interfere with the 
healing processes in the gut. In my experience the majority of patients do 
very well with just supplementing stomach acid, because it will trigger pro­
duction of their own pancreatic enzymes through secretin and cholecys­
tokinin, as well as triggering bile secretion and many other important 
players in the digestive process, making it far more natural. Digestive enzymes do not need to be taken permanently. As the gut 
starts healing the person can slowly withdraw the stomach acid supple­
mentation and/or pancreatic enzymes, taking them only with heavy meals 
or if something not allowed on the diet has been eaten. 5. VITAMIN AND 
MINERAL SUPPLEMENTATION 
A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill 
if you don't eat it. Albert von Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986) 
Hungarian-bom US biochemist 
GAPS patients have many nutritional deficiencies, so it is a natural desire 
to get rid of them. The question is: how. Is it a matter of simply testing how much magnesium, for example, a 
person is missing and then supplementing that amount. Or is it a matter of 
taking a supplement "specifically designed" for autism or ADHD or 
schizophrenia, using the "one size fits all" approach. Maybe we should just 
give megadoses of all the nutrients, which the person is deficient in, 
hoping that the body will sort it all out. Many health practitioners turn to testing for nutritional deficiencies. For 
every nutrient there are optimal tests, which are considered to give the 
most accurate information about that particular nutrient, and there are 
less optimal tests, which may be quite misleading. Trying to use the most 
optimal test for every nutrient is impractical and can be very expensive. So, 
usually one or two tests are performed for all the nutrients at once, which 
does not represent the true picture. So, trying to work out a nutritional 
supplementation protocol based on these tests is shaky from the start. On top of that, many supplements on the market have a very low 
absorption rate, some about 9%, so the amount the patient's body would 
actually get can be way below what it says on the bottle. But, of course, the 
majority of manufacturers would not tell you on the bottle how low the 
absorption rate of their supplement is, even if they knew. So, choosing a 
supplement can be quite difficult. Absorption of supplements is a complicated process which, apart from 
the quality of the supplement, also depends on the state of the patient's 
digestive system. Two different people may absorb different amounts of 
nutrients from the same supplement. GAPS digestive system is generally 
not in good shape and may not absorb any of those nutrients particularly 
well. To complicate the whole matter even further, many nutrients compete 
for absorption sites in the gut. So, if we supplement too much calcium, for example, it may impair absorption of other nutrients: magnesium, zinc, 
copper, iron, some amino acids and others, creating deficiencies in those 
nutrients. Indeed this is a very confusing area of nutrition. The truth is nobody 
knows how to prescribe vitamins and minerals because we do not have 
enough research or knowledge on this subject. Every nutritionist or medi­
cal practitioner has his/her own collection of favourite supplements and 
that is what they usually use on most of their patients. lust as with main­
stream psychiatry, where drugs are used mostly on a trial-and-error basis, 
the same method is used in prescribing vitamin and mineral supplements. Taking vitamin and mineral supplements has become very common not 
only because many of us take "health-pills", but because a lot of foods are 
fortified with vitamins and minerals to compensate for the loss of those 
nutrients in the food processing, not to mention the fact that many foods 
are grown using intensive farming techniques, which makes them nutrient 
poor from the start. Unfortunately, a lot of these supplemented nutrients 
are synthetic. The body has been designed to use natural forms of these 
nutrients and often does not recognise the synthetic forms and does not 
know what to do with them. There is a growing suspicion that a lot of cases 
of kidney stones, for example, are caused by supplementing synthetic 
forms of vitamin C, which would represent most vitamin C supplements 
available in the shops. There is a highly publicised opinion that in our modem world we cannot 
be healthy without taking nutritional supplements, because our diet 
cannot provide us with optimal amounts of nutrients. Indeed, if you live on 
cereal and toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and a standard dinner 
you will not provide your body with optimal amounts of nutrition and you 
will have to take supplements. The diet, which is described in this book, 
will provide you with concentrated amounts of nutrition in a natural form, 
which the body recognises and knows what to do with. luicing will add 
more concentrated amounts of vitamins, minerals and other useful sub­
stances. A good probiotic on average increases absorption rate of nutrients 
from food by 50% or more. On top of that probiotic bacteria are supposed 
to be the main source of vitamins B, K, bio tin and many other substances 
in the body. Indeed, that is the first group of nutritional deficiencies which 
usually disappear when the patient starts taking therapeutic doses of a 
strong probiotic. The diet and probiotic will start healing the digestive 
system, so the patient will start absorbing the nutrients from the food 
properly. Another important point we have to consider when it comes to our GAPS 
patients is that their digestive system is inflamed and damaged. A lot of 
synthetic supplements, fillers and binders in tablets and capsules will 
aggravate and irritate already sensitive GAPS gut lining and interfere with 
the healing process. I have seen many patients who put a lot of effort into 
implementing the diet, but would not achieve the best results until they 
removed most of their supplements. That is why I normally do not recommend any vitamin or mineral sup­
plementation at the beginning of the programme. I recommend putting 
most effort into implementing the diet first and starting the healing pro­
cess in the gut. Once the digestive system starts working properly in many 
patients their nutritional deficiencies disappear without any supplemen­
tation. They disappear the natural way through the body sorting it out for 
itself. Of course, aU patients are different and some of them require targeted 
supplementation. But that is a matter for a qualified practitioner to decide. Here are some important points to keep in mind. • Choose supplements without any ingredients which may aggravate 
the gut condition. Supplements in a liquid form are better than in 
powder, tablet or capsule. Substances, which are not allowed on the 
diet, should also be out. • Choose supplements with a high absorption rate, for example, vita­
min and mineral supplements with added fulvic acid. Fulvic acid (not 
to be confused with folic acid) is produced by bacteria in soil. It can 
ensure a very high absorption rate for a supplement the natural way. It 
also has good chelating properties for heavy metals. Soil bacteria in 
your probiotic will provide your gut with this acid. • Keep supplements to an absolute minimum. DETOXIFICATION FOR 
PEOPLE WITH GAP SYNDROME 
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. Erma Bombeck 
We live in a polluted world. Every day we breath in car fumes and industrial 
wastes. We eat foods containing pesticides, herbicides and other agricul­
tural chemicals. We drink milk and eat meat from animals which are rou­
tinely given antibiotics, steroids and other drugs. We eat a countless 
number of various chemicals in processed foods. We use personal care 
products full of various chemicals shown to be carcinogenic and generally 
toxic for humans. Our modem energy-conserving homes and offices have 
become toxic places. Modern building materials, insulation, paints, 
domestic cleaning chemicals and fire retardants all outgas toxic sub­
stances which we breathe day in and day out. For example, chemical anal­
ysis on outgassing of common carpets and carpet adhesives in modern 
homes found considerable amounts of toxic substances such as formalde­
hyde, toluene, xylene, benzene, methacrylate, tetrachloroethylene, methyl 
naphthalene, phthalates and styrene. All these chemicals are known toxins 
for a human and we breathe them in large quantities all the time we are at 
home. Hospitals and shopping centres have even higher amounts of toxic 
substances in the air, that is why many people feel so tired and drained 
after a shopping trip or a long visit to a hospital. And as if all that is not 
enough, we routinely take prescription drugs, drink alcohol and smoke 
tobacco. So, how do we survive. How do we manage to live our lives, go to work, 
have children, without just dropping dead after our first breath of traffic-
jam air in the morning. We survive thanks to a very important system in our bodies. A system 
which until recently we did not know much about - a DETOXIFICATION 
SYSTEM. It is a system, which is like a cleaner in the body. It constantly cleans out 
all the toxins, produced as a result of normal body metabolism, and toxins 
arriving from the outside. It has got its headquarters in the liver and 
departments in every cell of the body. The sophistication and complexity 
of this system is staggering to even the most knowledgeable biochemists and there is a lot we still don't know about how it works so efficiently. But 
what we do know is that this system, in order to function well, has to have a 
constant supply of certain nutrients: zinc, magnesium, selenium, molyb­
denum and other minerals and trace elements, hundreds of enzymes, 
many amino acids and essential fats - all the substances which our GAPS 
children and adults are deficient in. Due to these deficiencies the detoxifi­
cation system cannot function at an optimum level in a GAPS person. At 
the same time this system is overloaded with work, because GAPS patients 
are very toxic people. Imagine a worker, who is being starved of food and 
drink, and at the same time is being given more and more work to do. How 
is he going to cope. He is going to put most of this work into a backlog, 
hoping for easier times when he would be able to attend to it. That is 
exactly what the detoxification system does in a GAPS patient - it stores 
various toxic substances in different tissues in the body in order to deal 
with them later. That is why when these patients are tested for heavy 
metals, petrochemicals and other toxins they always test positive. Unfortunately, a lot of these chemicals have affinity for fats and therefore 
get stored in body fats. A human brain and the rest of the nervous system 
have a very high proportion of fats in its tissues and become a storage site 
for these toxins. A brain clogged with toxicity cannot develop or function 
well. We see this very clearly in GAPS patients.
60,000 micrograms as a single dose.
What is the maximum amount of vitamin A that can be given to a child with a vitamin A deficiency?
The recommended daily allowance is not specified in the text, but it is mentioned that an adult would need 20 times the recommended daily allowance to reach toxic levels, which translates to 20 teaspoons of cod liver oil. For a small child, it is not specified, but it is mentioned that a dose is needed that is different from the recommended daily allowance.
What is the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for an adult, and what is the recommended dose for a small child?
The recommended approach is to test the patient's vitamin A status and adjust the dose accordingly, taking into account the poor absorption of vitamin A in GAPS patients. However, in practice, most patients cannot be tested regularly, so it is recommended to follow the recommended daily allowance according to age.
What is the recommended approach to treating GAPS patients with vitamin A deficiency?
The recommended approach is to reduce exposure to environmental toxins, use natural remedies, and not use antibiotics. It is also recommended to use probiotics, and to avoid using processed foods and personal care products that contain toxic substances.
What is the recommended approach to detoxification in GAPS patients?
The recommended approach is to try natural remedies first, such as using warm compresses, drinking hot drinks with honey, and using garlic and olive oil. If these measures do not work, antibiotics can be used.
What is the recommended approach to treating ear infections in GAPS patients?