Going Beyond a Rotation Diet for Autoimmune Health
You’ve probably heard about rotation diets for food sensitivities. I’ve written about them
before. But I’d like to suggest a novel concept: not just rotating your food, but also other
aspects of your routine such as stress management, exercise, and the way you take
supplements and hormones.
Rotating each of these areas can help you stay motivated on your health and fitness goals. It
can stop you from getting burned out and feeling like you have to do too many things to stay
healthy.
A lot of times when people are experiencing health problems, there are multiple things that are
going on. It’s usually the perfect storm of different issues with their diet, with their lifestyle,
maybe their environment. They’re needing extra support, maybe in terms of supplements,
vitamins, and minerals or lifestyle strategies. It can seem overwhelming when there are so
many new, healthy recommendations to incorporate into your lifestyle at one time. That’s why
we do our best in our practice to really try to simplify the approach for people and to only
initiate a couple of health changes at a time.
In this blog post, I’ll cover the ways you can switch things up a bit in order to feel your best. But
first, let’s revisit the concept of rotation diets.
Rotation Diets Are Only The First Step
Let’s recap the idea of rotation diets, sometimes called a rotation elimination diet. On these
diets, you stop eating certain food items for a period of time, then you reintroduce them back
into your diet. You ideally will eat one food item once every four days. The idea is to vary your
diet so that you’re not eating the same type of food every day.
There are two reasons why you would want to undertake a rotation diet. The first is to avoid
food sensitivities. You might have taken a food sensitivities test or food intolerance check and
certain problem foods should be avoided to relieve symptoms. Food sensitivities happen when
somebody is getting a lot of exposure to a particular food on a regular basis. The more
exposure, the more often they eat it, the chance of a reaction occurring, especially if they have
leaky gut. Rotating foods through the diet can help prevent a food reaction from developing.
The second reason you might want to undertake a rotation diet is to have more diversity in
what you eat, which is good for the gut microbiome. A variety of colorful fruits and vegetables
is healthier for the body, too, because it provides many different phytonutrients and
antioxidants. A rotation diet means you’re not just eating the same things over and over and
over again. You get to pick and choose different foods to incorporate.
Stress Management Tips Using the Concept of Rotation
The last thing you need when you’re stressed is to become overwhelmed. That’s where the
concept of rotation comes into play.
There are two ways to use rotation for stress management. First is to rotate between different
types of stress management techniques such as meditation, journaling, grounding, breathing
exercises, or Epsom salt baths.
The second is rotating the days on which you do particular stress management strategies.
Trying to do every type of stress management technique every day is impossible and
overwhelming.
For example, let’s say on Thursday you do an Epsom salt bath, on Tuesdays and Fridays you do
a sauna, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, you go to yoga. Pick whatever schedule and whatever
activities work for you.
By scheduling in the stress management techniques and spacing them out, it can keep you
consistent. It also reduces the risk of burning yourself out, because you’re not trying to do too
many things. It can also keep things more interesting because every day is different, so it’s less
likely you’ll become bored.
How to Stay Motivated for Exercise
You can also apply the concept of rotation to exercise. This is an approach you may have heard
of and you might be putting this into practice already. It’s really the best way to exercise.
Here’s an example of how it works. Do higher intensity or cardio exercises on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday and then do other types of exercise on the other days. Maybe on those
other days, you do more restorative exercises such as yoga or stretching. Try walking in nature
on other days and weights on another day. Vary what you’re doing to give your body a chance
to recover and repair, and also to be able to incorporate all of these different kinds of exercises
into your routine.
Rotating Dietary Supplements
A lot of times we’ll do rotation of supplements with people who are patients—who we call
“practice members”—if they react to supplements from a food sensitivities perspective.
Sometimes we’ll have to start really slow and suggest that they only take a particular
supplement every few days.
With certain supplements, it is beneficial to take them on a regular basis such as omega-3s and
vitamin D and for some people turmeric. If you can take those daily, it would be helpful,
especially in the beginning as you’re trying to get inflammation down or want to stabilize your
health. But in the long term, what people can do is start to space out these supplements where
they take their omega-3s or vitamin D supplements a few times a week instead of every day.
In this way, you’re limiting the amount of supplements you have to take every day because
sometimes people get burnt out when they have to take a lot of supplements. The goal is to use
supplements as a tool to give added support and for maintenance, instead of a Band-aid that
you’re relying on taking every day.
This strategy can be used by people who are feeling overwhelmed by too many supplements.
They can take supplements every other day and switch through the different supplements
they’re taking. That way they’ll still get the benefit of the supplements without feeling
overwhelmed.
We recommend you work with our team here at the Caplan Health Institute to guide you
through the supplement rotation process to make sure you are doing it correctly.
Rotating Hormone Replacement
Varying the times of the month that you take your hormones is a particularly helpful strategy.
Women have hormone cycles that sometimes need specific support at different times during
their cycles. I work with women who have issues with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS),
endometriosis, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD, a severe form of premenstrual
syndrome), where they have to supplement with different hormones or nutrients at different
parts of their cycles.
Some of our female practice members have problems with estrogen dominance, where around
the time of ovulation they need to be taking estrogen detox support, but they don’t need to
take it all month long.
With some hormones, rotation isn’t necessary. For example, I often prescribe bioidentical
progesterone to women when we’re trying to get their cycles regular. Some people have
suggested that the body adjusts to supplementation and makes less of its natural amounts as a
compensation mechanism. However, taking progesterone does not stop women from making it
on their own. A lot of times this type of hormone replacement can help you start to produce
more consistent levels of progesterone because we’re helping restore optimal ovulation.
Melatonin is another hormone that can be supplemented continuously. People used to think
that if you take melatonin supplements, then you stop making melatonin on your own.
However, that has now been disproven. Unless you’re taking really high doses, taking melatonin
supplements won’t stop your natural production of the hormone.
Thyroid hormone is the only hormone where your natural production might decline if you
replenish low levels. If you start taking thyroid hormone, it will tell your gland to not make more of its own and it can stop your own production. That’s why most people get stuck on thyroid hormone replacement once they get started on it. It is important for people on thyroid medication to take it daily and consistently.
Switch Things Up To Improve Your Autoimmune Health
At the Caplan Health Institute, we can help you implement all the strategies mentioned in this
article. Better yet, we can develop a personalized approach so that you know which stress
management techniques work best, which exercise routines to undertake, and at what times of
the month you should take your hormones and supplements.
The first step is to schedule a free 15-minute discovery consultation, by phone or video. At that
point, if you come on board as a practice member, I’ll order the right lab testing and evaluate
your personal medical history so we can formulate an approach that will turn around
autoimmune disease and have you feeling ready to conquer the world.
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