From Gut-Brain Secrets.
GAPS: Coined by gut-brain health pioneer Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, Gut and Psychology Syndrome conditions are gut imbalances, such as leaky gut and gut dysbiosis, that cause impaired brain function, such as ADD, autism, anxiety and depression.
Facial bones can display signs of nutrient deficiencies in ADD/GAPS
One of the first places in the body to show visible signs of nutrient deficiency, and susceptibility to ADD, is in the bones of the face. The first to be affected is the maxilla, then the lower jaw, then the hip bones. The maxilla, which forms the upper jaw and middle-third of the face (cheekbones), is one of the first bones to suffer from underdevelopment when the body lacks the nutrition it needs in childhood to grow to its full genetic potential.
But when you’re undernourished, the maxilla grows narrower, shorter, and smaller than it’s genetically programmed to, making the middle third of the face, from the eyes to the upper jaw, appear less robustly constructed than it’s designed to be – in some cases like they’re hanging off an enlarged skull (picture starving African children). This causes the upper palate of the mouth to be smaller than it should be. Teeth come in crooked. And wisdom teeth usually have to be pulled due to overcrowding. Cleft palate and cleft lip are likely caused by the same thing: select nutrient deficiencies (as suggested by Dr. Francis Pottenger’s cat studies).
Conversely, when you’re properly nourished, the maxilla grows to its full size. All the teeth come in straight, and you don’t need braces. There’s even room for the wisdom teeth without overcrowding. That’s the way our bone structure is genetically designed to be. Dr. Weston A. Price documented all this when he studied nutrition and physical degeneration in the 1920s and ‘30s (now largely ignored by mainstream medicine). He spent over ten years studying native populations around the world that were born and raised eating their traditional diets, as well as the first generation to eat a Western diet of processed foods.
He found that native populations eating whole foods from the land and sea did not suffer from cavities, degenerative diseases, or difficult childbirth. Cancer, diabetes, and arthritis were practically non-existent. Their babies didn’t cry inconsolably. They were happy and content. The people had broad faces and pleasant dispositions. The men in a village all looked like brothers, and the women sisters, because they received the nutrients they needed in childhood to reach their genetic potential – including vitamins A, D, E and K, plus minerals.
Africans on their ancestral diet. Image is the copyrighted property of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
On the other hand, the first generation born and raised on foods made from white flour, sugar, man-made vegetable oils, and processed ingredients developed dental deformities, including narrow palate, crooked teeth, cleft palate, overbites and underbites. Women had more pain and difficulty in childbirth due to narrowing of hip bones. Babies cried regularly. They all developed the degenerative diseases we accept as normal today. And they lost some of their positive outlook.
Africans on a Western diet. Images are the copyrighted property of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Dr. Price saw the difference in people’s faces and documented in pictures what happens when you switch from a diet of natural, whole foods to a diet of processed, unhealthy foods made by commercial food companies. He showed that nutrient-sparse foods clearly changed facial features for the worse. But what pained him the most was seeing the immense suffering that tooth decay caused before the native populations had dentists to fix the damage caused by cavity-causing foods. He saw previously healthy populations stricken with diabetes, obesity and modern diseases.
Today, narrowing of the face is so common, we think nothing of it. However, the eye still reveres high cheekbones and a symmetrical face indicative of proper nutrition and underlying good health. Terrific bone structure is still coveted in the modeling industry. If you want to track this phenomenon happening over generations, examine old photos from several generations ago – those most likely to have eaten pastured-raised animal products and whole foods from nature. You’ll see most of them had broad faces and high cheekbones that we still consider attractive today. Look at old family photos of multiple generations side by side and you might see an increasingly narrow face from one generation to the next.
Conclusion: Although you can’t say for sure that a person who has a narrow face definitely has ADD. And you also can’t say that a person who has a broad face and naturally straight teeth does not have ADD. But there is a strong correlation between the two, because gut dysbiosis does cause both ADD and nutrient deficiencies that lead to underdevelopment of facial bones. They’re frequently seen together.
Please visit price-pottenger.org and/or read Dr. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, to learn more about how the nutrients that Nature puts into food give people beautiful skeletal structure and robust health, whereas commercial food production and processing depletes “food” of nutrients, predisposing you to the diseases of civilization.
Autistic facial features can normalize when malnutrition is corrected
Think autistic facial features are set in stone and can never be reversed? Think again. As Dr. Zach Bush explains, autistic facial features are not hard-wired into an individual at birth. Rather, they’re caused by nutrient deficiencies and resulting epigenetic alterations, in which the genetic expression of autistics give them facial features as much like each other as siblings or parents. The effect is not quite as dramatic as Down’s syndrome. But autistics do tend to have a pathologically absent expression – like they’re not intellectually present in the moment. It alters physical features noticeably, but almost indescribably. And it often produces dark circles around the eyes, which is a tell-tale sign of nutrient deficiency.
What may come as a surprise to you and the medical community is that these deviations from your genetic design can be reversed. It doesn’t happen quickly or easily. But when you correct nutrient deficiencies, and fix under-lying problems that cause autism, you can normalize a person’s “look about them,” eliminate dark circles under the eyes, and remodel bones of the face over a course of years – especially when started in their formative years.
Fidgeting, knee bouncing, pen twiddling and finger drumming
Many ADD individuals repetitively bounce their leg up and down when sitting, in order to stimulate brain function. They say it feels good. More accurately, it feels satisfying because the activation of muscles releases neurotransmitters in the brain which also fuel cognition. Like a natural biohack, fidgeting or any movement calms the discomforting feelings that come from an underactive prefrontal cortex by increasing activity in the brain centers responsible for movement, coordination and cognition. This increases the availability of neurotransmitter “juice” for the entire brain to use – particularly cognitive function. Very similar is the saying among salesmen ‘motion creates emotion’ – meaning, movement stimulates brain function.
Thus, chronic leg bouncing is a tell-tale sign of ADD. It comes from stimulation-seeking behavior by a nervous system that’s uncomfortable in an underactive state. The ADD brain needs the increased physical activity to raise its mental function. So it compels the body to move in any way that’s socially-acceptable at the time (or not). It would be fair to call this sort of ADD compulsion a more controlled/controllable version of autistic “stimming” in that they’re doing it to make their nervous system feel more comfortable. However, ADD’ers have greater conscious control over it.
On the other hand, neurotypical people don’t feel that same urge to consume “nervous energy.” Their cognitive function operates in a comfortable range the vast majority of the time, so they feel fine in a completely relaxed neuromuscular state. Until they get tired, nervous or otherwise depleted, non-GAPS people are content just being still.
Uncontrolled blinking, facial tics, neck twitching, shoulder shrugging
Some GAPS individuals experience facial tics or forceful, involuntary blinking. Less common are neck twitching or shoulder shrugging. While these kinds of muscle spasms are not connected to cognitive function, they certainly don’t do you any favors in terms of first impressions or social cues.
To observers, it’s a dead giveaway that something is short-circuiting in the brain, causing the person to lose muscle control for a split second. That’s probably why rapid, uncontrolled movements like these are unsettling to observe – especially for women: there’s a brief loss of motor control indicative of a potential psychological disorder. Presumably, our subconscious suspects that tics and twitches are caused by the same mechanisms of action that cause brain disorders.
Instinct tells us that inappropriate firing of nerve cells (i.e., lack of neuronal inhibition), and miscommunication in the brain, causes these macro movements to occur without intent or restraint. That flips a switch in people’s awareness, telling them something’s not quite right here, so watch out. This caution/fear is hardwired into humans in response to those lacking mental or physical control over themselves.
Whatever the case may be, unregulated movements such as these may be caused or worsened by magnesium deficiency. Recall that magnesium lets cells, muscles, and blood vessels relax by inhibiting inappropriate or excessive firing of nerves. According to recent reports, some 80% of Americans are magnesium deficient. And it’s no wonder. Here are a few ways that we get to be magnesium deficient:
- high sugar/carb diet depletes magnesium levels
- low dietary intake of magnesium
- mal-absorption due to a corrupted gut
- increased magnesium consumption from medications
- nnEMFexposure, such as cell phones and Wi-Fi.
Another circumstance that causes/contributes to facial tics is neurotransmitter imbalances messing up communications between brain centers. Ordinarily, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) quashes erroneous signals before they’re passed around the brain and out to the body. Without proper neurotransmitter levels to excite or inhibit brain function – especially when lacking PFC gatekeeper function – false excitatory signals escape uncorrected, resulting in twitches. This enables “micro seizures” to occur.