Swollen fingers or puffy hands

A sign of B6 deficiency.

Solutions:

• » Eat plenty of food high in B vitamins, such as brown rice, sunflower seeds, avocados, buckwheat and legumes.
• » You may need an additional daily dose of 35mg B6.
• » Drink red clover tea (3 cups a day).

Red, scaly skin on hands

You could have zinc, EFA, vitamin C and E deficiencies. Red, scaly skin can also be a sign of food sensitivities.

Solutions:

• » Try adding 25mg zinc, 1000mg EFAs, 1000mg vitamin C and 400iu vitamin E to your daily diet.
• » Get yourself tested for food sensitivities. You could start by eradicating the most likely suspects: wheat and chocolate.

Pale inside lower eyelid

Pull the lower eyelid down. Inside the lower rim, the colour should be pinky red. If it’s extremely pale, you may be anaemic. You may need iron plus vitamin B Complex with B12.

Solutions:

• » Get this checked by your GP or a specialist nutritionist.
• » Start taking a liquid mineral supplement following the dosage on the packaging, or daily multivitamin/mineral supplement.
• » Nettle tea is a great natural iron booster.

Dark circles under the eyes

Dark circles under the eyes usually indicate food allergies and possible weak kidney energy.

Solutions:

• » Rotate your foods; in other words, do not eat the same foods every day.
• » Eat the grain quinoa.
• » Drink cranberry juice (2 glasses daily for a week).
• » Build up your kidneys by eating the foods listed opposite:

Cracks at each corner of the mouth

A sign of vitamin B2 deficiency.

Solutions:

• » Drink 2 cups of red clover/nettle tea every day.
• » Take a vitamin B Complex supplement that contains B2 (riboflavin) (50mg daily).
• » Drink a glass of carrot juice with a teaspoon of the superfood spirulina every day.
• » Eat plenty of dark green leafy veggies, almonds, parsley and wheatgerm.

Puffy lower lip

Unless you’ve been injected with collagen to give your lips a fuller appearance, a puffy lower lip indicates digestive stagnation. It could even suggest constipation. Bear in mind that even if you move your bowels every day, it does not mean you are not constipated. Not everything we eat comes out as effectively as it should!

Solutions:

• » Eat simply, food combine , drink warm herbal teas and eat hearty vegetable soups.
• » A digestive enzyme supplement along with the superfood spirulina should make a difference.
• » Slippery elm tea will soothe your system.

Tender spots where the shoulder meets your arm

An indication of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Solution:

• » Get B12 sublingual lozenges from a health store (1000mcg daily).

Deficiencies of the mineral magnesium are at epidemic levels in this country, causing constipation, high blood pressure, depression, leg cramps, PMS, insomnia and excessive tiredness.

Small pimply bumps on the arm

A possible sign of beta-carotene, B Complex and EFA deficiency.

Solutions:

• » Take the above supplements (beta-carotene 15mg daily, B Complex 50mg daily and EFA 500mcg daily).
• » Take digestive enzymes to help you absorb other nutrients.
• » Start eating a wide range of foods which contain high levels of B12, including sprouted seeds, fish, tempeh, miso soup and dulse.

Red spots on the front of the thigh

A possible vitamin A deficiency.

Solutions:

• » Take wild blue-green algae supplement (6 tablets or 1 teaspoon daily) or the superfood spirulina in powder form or tablets (1 teaspoon daily or 6 tablets).
• » Add seaweed to your cooking .
• » Take a good multi-vitamin supplement daily.
• » Try an additional supplement of beta-carotene (15mg daily) – it sounds strange but it’s a very good source of vitamin A.
• » Eat plenty of foods from the following list, all high in Vitamin A:
• » Broccoli
• » Brussels sprouts
• » Carrots
• » Dandelion greens
• » Halibut
• » Kale
• » Mustard green
• » Papaya
• » Parsley
• » Pumpkin
• » Red pepper
• » Salmon
• » Sweet potatoes
• » Watercress
• » Watermelon
• » Yellow squash

Sore knee

If your knee is sore where the kneecap joins the main bone of the leg, it could be an indicator of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Solutions:

• » Try 400 mcg selenium and vitamin E for two to three months.

Sore lower leg bone

A lower leg bone that is sore when pressed is an indicator of vitamin and mineral deficiency.

Solutions:

• » Take calcium (1000mg daily) and niacinimide (500mcg daily).

Leg cramps

Cramping leg pain means your calcium levels are low. You may also have a magnesium deficiency, since magnesium is needed to mobilize calcium into the bones.

Solutions:

• » Take 750mg magnesium and 500mg calcium twice a day.
• » Add seaweed to your soups and stews.
• » Eat lots of green leafy vegetables.
• » If you exercise often and sweat, it’s a good idea to take a magnesium supplement after your work-out.

Varicose veins

An indication of nutritional deficiencies and/or congestion in the liver.

Solutions:

• » Take vitamin E (400iu daily), bioflavonoids (500mg daily) and magnesium (1000mg daily).

Cracked feet

Cracking on your feet indicates a possible rise of yeast in the body.

Solutions:

• » Add a biotin supplement to your diet (50mg daily) to prevent yeast organisms from budding full cycle.
• » Massage your feet with flax oil.

Tender, gassy stomach that is sometimes painful

An indication of low stomach acid and insufficient digestive enzymes.

Solutions:

• » Take an HCL supplement.
• » Take a digestive enzyme with each meal.
• » Cut out cow’s milk products, because the molecules are too large for many people to break down in the stomach.
• » Try food combining .

Greasy stools that won’t flush

Floating stools that will not flush show a liver imbalance.

Solutions:

• » Start sprinkling linseeds on your salads or into soups every day.
• » Practise the Liver Rub .
• » Drink 3 cups of sage tea a day.
• » Take a teaspoon of spirulina every day.
• » Eat more foods to strengthen the liver .
• » Take L’glutamine powder before all meals.
• » Cleanse your body out with the ayurvedic cleansing tri herb combination Triphala. If you can’t find that anywhere, get psyllium husks and treat yourself to a home enema .

Foul-smelling stools

Foul-smelling stools are a sign of poor digestion and food stagnating in your large intestine. This means you are toxic and your gut is overly acidic. You are sorely in need of digestive enzymes.

Solutions:

• » Start taking a digestive enzyme capsule with every meal.
• » Buy some liquid chlorophyll from a health food shop and take a teaspoon before meals.
• » Take 100mg Co-Enzyme Q10 every day.
• » It would do you the world of good to start juicing your own juice (for example, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery and 1 cucumber, juiced together). I know that sounds like a pain but it’s well worth the bother.

Skid mark stools

Your stools have too much mucus, so they slide and stick to the edge of the toilet. You are lacking good-quality fibre in your diet and need to eat more foods high in food enzymes . The stickiness is a sign of dampness inside the body – a very common condition in Britain.

Solutions:

• » Reduce your intake of mucus-producing foods such as dairy products and alcohol. Yep. Skip the pub visits for a while or stick to still mineral water. I am not trying to be a party pooper but you will feel miles better within just a few days.
• » Eat the superfood wild blue-green algae, available from health food stores (6 capsules a day).

Pellets

If you are producing rabbit droppings, then your liver needs help as it is congested. I urge my own patients at the clinic to embark upon my one-day detox but I make them do it for two days!

Solutions:

• » Take 2 capsules of milk thistle, three times a day, and alpha lipoic acid (500mg daily) for a month.
• » Use an internal cleansing powder called Psyllium or Triphala (2 tablespoons mixed in juice or water a day) and take 1 teaspoon liquid chlorophyll before meals. You can get all of this in a health store.
• » Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of Lecithin granules on cereals or salads.

Light-coloured stools

If your stools are light beige in colour or have a yellow appearance it’s a sign that you have difficulty digesting fatty foods. You are also most likely deficient in essential fatty acids, the good fats.

Solutions:

• » Eat more foods with EFAs, to help you to metabolize fats. Add fish, avocados, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sea vegetables such as nori and dulse to your diet.
• » Sprinkling 1 tablespoon of flax seeds over salad will also help normalize your stools.

Food in your stools

It is normal to find sweetcorn skin in your stools as the outer skin is fairly indigestible. However, if you find remnants of other foods, then it may mean your digestive system is weak. Also, you may not be chewing your food enough. Chew your food thoroughly and remember that your stomach doesn’t have any teeth.