What Does It Feel Like to be Autoimmune?

A friend of mine once told me that if we were able to dump all our troubles onto our front lawns and have the pick of whichever set of troubles we wanted, in the end we would choose our own.

Of course there will always be moments I doubt such a statement, when a single donut will send me spiraling into a vortex of pain, loosing touch with reality. One day simply walking to the top of my stairs sends my heart rate soaring to almost 200, while the next day I can run a mile uphill and my heart rate never reaches 120. Proper diet and exercise are essential for everyone, but I am filled with doubt when it seems I have to work so much harder than most people to stay healthy.

Tears of anger fall down my patient's cheek. Last week she was thrilled to be diagnosed with Hoshimoto's because after seeing at least 40 different doctors who told her nothing was wrong, she finally knew why she felt like "a dead fish carcass". But this week she tells me her husband, her kids, her friends, and even her doctor do not understand how she feels - what it is like to live with the pain and fatigue. In her heart she knows visible physical limitations are no easier to cope with. She knows what it is like to see a loved one in pain and want to take their pain away. My patient cries out in anger not for their lack of understanding, but her own.

Another patient cries tears of frustration when she realizes that although a healthy lifestyle can help her significantly, she will never attain the health she had before. She knows that any minor stress to her immune system can cause a dreadful attack of her own immune system against her own body. The immune system communicates with every system in the body so cycles can vary from MS affecting the nerves, Psoriasis affecting the skin, Hoshimoto's or Grave's Disease affecting the endocrine system, Celiac affecting the gut, Rheumatoid affecting the joints and the list continues to grow the more we learn about autoimmune diseases. Worst of all, typically once a patient has one autoimmune disorder they will likely develop others as well.

So what could possibly be worse than your immune system attacking your own body? How about your immune system attacking a virus, parasite or bacteria that is attacking your body? Fortunately our immune system is typically capable of fighting off such problems in a short period of time. But sometimes it doesn't because either the pathogen is too virulent or your immune system is compromised by diet, lifestyle, autoimmune disease, or many other things. These patients will feel much like someone with an autoimmune disorder. But unlike someone an autoimmune disease which is typically cyclic, these patients will suffer almost constantly. Although mainstream medicine recognizes things like Hepatitis, Herpes and Shingles there is no treatment to eliminate them. Most American medical doctors rarely test for parasites and if they do, they typically only check for a few. I have seen many patients who were told they did not have parasites to have Metametrix Laboratories discover some unidentified aggressive parasite in their stool. Chronic forms of Lyme Disease, Parvovirus, Ebstien Barr or many others are not even recognized by many American medical doctors as real pathologies. (great documentary on Lyme "Under Our Skin")

There will always be people better or worse than us on all levels at all times. Life is a journey filled with lessons in each tragedy or disease. Maybe that pile of troubles is actually a pile of treasure waiting to be used to enrich your life.

Alternative Health Care

Have you ever had one of those moments where truth seemed to be screaming in your face and all you could think was 'this can't be right'? One of those moments came to me when I first thought of myself as an 'alternative care provider'. For years I wondered how chiropractic could be considered 'alternative' when we used x-rays, MRI, lab work, orthopedic testing, and have an education quite similar to most medical doctors. What makes chiropractic so alternative? Or probably a better question would be what is 'alternative care'?

Alternative care providers believe in and assist our body's innate ability to heal itself given the right nutrition, thoughts, energy, care..... When I get cut or catch a cold it is easy to recognize the innate ability my body has to heal from the inside out. When it comes to cancer and more serious illnesses it becomes more difficult to recognize that my body is capable of healing itself from the inside out. And if my leg gets cut off, send me to the hospital for some outside in treatment.

Allopathic health care, otherwise known as the traditional western medicine most Americans seek, is based on the belief that healing best occurs from the outside in. Drugs and surgery are used instead of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle to restore function to the body. Diet, exercise, or any alternative health care are occasionally used in conjunction with drugs and surgery, but rarely instead of. For the most part allopathic medicine treats the body as if it is not capable of healing from the inside out. It is the band aid approach to health care, and wouldn't it be nice to have everything fixed so easily without any effort of your own?

When a patient tells their medical doctor and they have been cured by prayer, chiropractic, acupuncture, nutrition, or any number of other things, western or allopathic medicine will typically conclude that the patient is either wrong about being healed; it was a misdiagnosis; or at best that it was a rare instance in which placebo worked and that patient somehow has a superior ability not held by everyone to heal themselves from within. Maybe healing is no less subjective than the pain or disease itself.

I have come to believe that the real joy of healing is not putting the band-aid on, but taking it off to discover our body's ability to heal itself. It is the truth screaming at me, telling me that no matter how good the band-aid is, true healing comes from within. I realize now that everything our body needs to heal is already within us. I no longer shy away from being labeled an alternative care provider, but embrace the thought of creating a new way of thinking for Americans.

"Should I Take Cholesterol Drugs?" - what I think of...

The following is a true story, though the names have been changed to protect the privacy of my friend "Mary" who did grant permission to publish this blog.

Part of me still regrets never visiting my friend Rob in his final days of life. I find myself wondering why I did not have the courage to do so. Maybe it was thinking that the patient, loving care his wife Mary offered was enough. The last time I saw Rob, Mary offered herself as his crutch because the muscles in his legs and arms were wasting away from ALS. She translated his grunts into words like a mother would do for a young child. I could remember Rob once telling me that he hoped I would one day find that life companion and love he had found in Mary.

Maybe it was thinking Rob would prefer to be remembered as the strong healthy man who once stood so strong. Rob did everything his doctors told him would improve his health including daily exercise, excellent dietary habits along with whole food supplements, and unfortunately taking a triglyceride lowering medication. About a year after being placed on the medication, Rob was noticing significant wasting of his muscles, he had gone from walking five miles a day to no longer being able to get up out of a chair without assistance. His doctors poked, prodded, and ran him through hundreds of tests but were unable to offer any answers. Eventually I told Rob that although it is not within my scope of practice to make recommendations regarding medications, as his friend not as his doctor I suggested he try going off his medication. Within weeks there was a notable improvement and within a year he was walking his five miles a day again. This is how I wanted to remember him, as a patient who could conquer the odds.

Maybe it was thinking that I could have done more, because five years later Rob's symptoms returned along with a mind numbing diagnosis of ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's Disease). I had read that cholesterol lowering drugs work by increasing the receptor sites which allow for reabsorbtion of LDL's, and even when a person stops taking such drugs that those receptor sites do not disappear. But for five years Rob had done well, and I had hoped that maybe since his was a triglyceride lowering drug maybe his case was different. I wondered if I had learned about the high fat, specific targeted nutrition for ALS patients sooner if it would have made a difference.

Maybe it was anger.... Towards the pharmaceutical companies for not admitting to such risks (it has been said that the only time a drug is recalled is when the suspected loss of income from settling lawsuits exceeds the loss of income from the sales of the product); Towards lawyers and a political system who have already made it illegal for anyone in America to sue pharmaceutical companies for any adverse reaction to an immunization, and in some states are making it illegal to sue a pharmaceutical company for any drug which has been approved for use. These same lawyers will also sue a doctor for not suggesting cholesterol drugs or any other indicated drugs to their patients; Towards doctors who take the majority of their continuing education in classes sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies and are not able to recognize the muscle weakness, increased pain, and decreased quality of life that I hear from my patients taking cholesterol drugs; Towards a media that promotes the latest a greatest drug, and bases their choices on money instead of the greater good of society.

Maybe it was realizing how powerless I am, that I could not have done more. We all have our own journey in life, and it saddens my soul to see victims of greed. But in the end only God truly has the power to heal or call us home. Maybe in the end I will always wonder why I did not have the courage to visit my friend in his final days.

But I do believe each and every person who touches my life serves a purpose. Maybe it was Rob's purpose to make me realize that no doctor, pharmacist, drug company, or chemist can possibly understand all the unique biochemical reactions that occur within our body. Surely there are instances where drugs can save lives, but as for me I'll take my chances and stick to what God made as much as possible.

The Forbidden Food List

If you have ever seen my daughter scouring the shelves in a grocery store intensely reading ingredient labels, don't let the interest fool you....... she's most likely searching for the least healthy food made that doesn't have something in it from my forbidden list, because according to her I make her eat completely abnormal. When I share this story with people the first question they ask is what is a forbidden food list?

It is my own list of things I refuse to purchase from a grocery store. I realize that when we eat out we will be exposed to these products our society refers to as food, but for the health of anyone eating in my household I do not purchase these foods. I refuse to support the companies who make these products by purchasing them. In my opinion if our country really wanted health care reform these items would be eliminated from our food supply.

The next thing people always want to know is what is on your 'forbidden food list'? I could do an entire blog on each item on my list but in effort to keep this simple I'll just give you the list:

*msg (this includes autolyzed or hydrolyzed anything, as well as 'spices' since companies commonly sneak msg into their foods using these terms)

*hydrogenated fat (this includes partially hydrogenated fats)

*aspartame, sucralose, or any artificial sugar

*high fructose corn syrup

*any artificial food colorings or dyes (ie. Red 40)

I could make a much longer list but just ask my daughter..... it is very difficult to find really unhealthy things that don't contain at least one of these items. Of course I prefer organic foods for many reasons but do not have non-organic on my forbidden list.

What is this pH, alkaline, acid thing everyone talks about?

Back in basic chemistry classes I learned pH was all about whether something was acid, neutral, or alkaline based on whether it was positively or negatively charged (how many hydrogen molecules were attached). Then all the sudden in chiropractic school people were talking about how our body's pH affects our health without ever connecting the dots for me. I wondered what does pH have to do with our health? I am pretty sure based on the answers I got, that very few people ever connected the dots.

Basically I was told that the healthier a person is, the more neutral their pH is. I thought "OK that makes sense, but what causes a person's pH to shift and how do you know what your pH is?" That's when I was told I could use pH test strips to test my saliva and urine to see how close to neutral my pH was. When I did this, my pH ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. When I asked why I was told my results were not possible, that I had to be doing something wrong. So I tried again and again with the same results. Nobody could explain this, nobody could connect the dots for me. I concluded the entire pH theory was useless.

Then a few weeks ago, I had one of those 'ah ha' moments. Positive and negative charges are what cause things change in pH (become acid or alkaline). The positive and negative charges we consume through water, food and our environment are minerals and toxic chemicals. Therefore when we are exposed to toxins in many ways like by eating foods with extra hydrogen attached (hydrogenated), our body will become more acid or alkaline. Minerals (ions, hydrogen, water) become out of balance in specific patterns with specific disease processes. This is how in my last blog I explained that a person can be dehydrated even when they drink enough water.

If you are mineral deficient (dehydrated), your pH will become acidic. A low pH (acidic) is unhealthy and is referred to as acidosis. If you continue to become more and more acidic due to a poor diet or mineral imbalances your body will start to pull minerals from your bones (eventually causing osteoporosis) to balance your pH, which can lead to alkalosis. Eventually acidosis or alkalosis causes digestive issues leading to malabsorbtion of nutrients which can result in any number of health issues which then results in greater mineral imbalances leading to a vicous cycle that becomes more difficult to break the longer it is present. If you test your pH and it is swinging back and forth like mine was, your body is most likely trying to find a balance in this manner.

Surely a nuteral pH is the healthiest, but since there are so many things that can shift a person's pH that I find checking a saliva pH with lithmus paper interesting but hardly diagnostic. If you are a practioner reading this who does believe this type of testing to be diagnostic, I would love to hear from you.

Do you need electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals. And when you start researching nutrition and minerals you are likely to come accross an array of conflicting information. Some articles will talk about toxicity caused by minerals and the next article will tell you about the diseases caused by mineral deficiencies. The marathon runner who passes out at the end of the race because of dehydration caused by mineral depletion, knows for sure that minerals are essential.

Minerals help hold water in our bodies. That's why people who have edema are told not to eat salt (probably the most common mineral in our diets today). I have many patients who drink the recommended half their weight in ounces everyday who show signs of dehydration with muscle cramping, constipation, decreased skin elasticity, and in their functional bloodwork analysis. Obviously their body is unable to hold onto the water they are consuming - simply a mineral imbalance.

There are long, expensive metal and mineral hair, blood, or urinalysis studies you can order that will tell you if you have too much or too little of certain minerals compared to the averages (which seem to vary a lot from lab to lab). I used to run these expensive panels on patients because certain deficiency/ toxicity patterns are consistent with certain disease processes. However I have come to realize that (with the exception of overconsuming isolated minerals like with salt, supplements, sodas and processed foods) it is not the mineral imbalance that causes the disease but the disease that causes the mineral imbalance. So I rarely run these panels anymore because I think if you heal the body, the mineral imbalance will correct itself.

Almost everyone has some level of adrenal stress, which causes mineral imbalances because your adrenals make mineralcorticoids which help to balance your minerals. When the adrenals are overused (stressed) for a long period of time you can develop thyroid or any number of other hormone imbalances. The best way to improve adrenal function is NOT to eat or eliminate minerals that show up deficient or excessive on some lab, but to eliminate processed sugar, develop healthy sleep patterns, decrease emotional stress levels, and have a regular aerobic exercise routine.

In the case of taking mineral supplements, taking too much of any mineral like iron or calcium can cause toxicity and health problems because it can create a mineral imbalance. The reason for this is that your body is designed to eat food, not dirt. When minerals are consumed in a natural food source, nature naturally balances the ratios for you. Consuming sodas and many processed foods will cause increased levels of phosphorous in your blood which causes your body to leech the calcium out of your bones to maintain a proper calcium/phosphorous balance. Therefore osteoporosis isn't necessarily caused by not consuming enough calcium.

It is rare that I recommend an isolated mineral, and if I do it is only for a temporary treatment of a specific condition. There are many whole food supplements like Juice Plus that work well for general nutrition and mineral supplementation. However if you are suffering with symptoms like muscle cramping I would suggest one of the several targeted whole food mineral supplements from Standard Process. Unless you are running a marathon, or sweating profusely on a regular basis it is unlikely you need to supplement with electrolyte drinks. However if you do I would suggest avoiding any drinks that contain chemicals that harm your body like aspartame, sucralose, and food colorings (such as most Gatorade and Powerade drinks).

Healing Power of Touch

The other day I told my teenage daughter there is a healing power to touch. Like most teenagers listening to a parent's lecture, she rolled her eyes in disbelief. In attempt to make my point I asked, "If four totally different strangers hugged you, don't you feel something different from each one?" She defended her own belief, "Well of course but it's only my own emotions, it has nothing to do with the other person." I gasped with horror at the thought that MY own daughter did not believe there was a healing power to touch, "Are you saying all those adjustments and massages I give you don't help?" Answered with the certainty of any teenage child proving their parent wrong, "Well of course it helps, but only because stretching and massage have a physical effect on the muscle. It has nothing to do with some healing power."

Much like my own daughter today, I also used to believe touch was nothing more than a mechanical stimuli with a specific intended effect. In a vain attempt to disprove this belief, my sisters and I used to try to make each other laugh by tickling each other with our fingers dancing above each others tummy but not quite touching it. It seemed completely absurd that they could make me laugh without even touching me, and I thought surely it had to be all in my mind, simply an emotional response.

Years of experience have taught me otherwise. In school I read studies that showed babies who were touched thrived more; people with pets or spouses were sick less often; and people who were prayed for healed faster and better than those not prayed for regardless of whether they knew they were being prayed for or not. The more I read and experienced, the more I knew touch was not simply something that could be explained away by science or emotions.

When you fall down and sprain your ankle, your natural response is to touch or grab at your injury. Even if you don't believe this is because your touch has the ability to heal, you can attest to the puffy, hot joint you feel with your touch. When you hone your ability to feel this heat you can pull your hands an inch off your ankle and still feel the heat with your hands. In much the same way, once when someone very dear to me was on life support I felt with my hands over her lungs without making physical contact with her body. During the first days everything was hot, but by the fourth day I felt only one area of heat. Just after telling someone else in the ICU room what I had felt, the respiratory therapist came in. After listening with a stethoscope, the therapist (without knowing what I had said), repeated what I had said and pointed to exactly where I had.

Much like art or music, I believe the power to heal is a gift and like all gifts it grows the more we use it. It is well documented that even some animals can feel where a person is sick or hurt, so why is it so hard for us to believe that we can intuitively know or hone our own ability to heal ourselves as well as others? If we eat poorly, don't exercise, and live stressful lives year after year only to develop heart disease, muscle or joint pains, or cancer why do we think that God or our doctor can fix a disease process that took years of poor choices to develop? Maybe just like love languages, a healing touch is different for every person depending on what brought us to where we are. Maybe we all have the power to heal ourselves as well as others with our touch.

Sometimes if we love a certain food we know is bad for us, we tell ourselves a little bit is ok. Sometimes exercise is too painful or difficult to fit into our schedules. Sometimes a fear of what might be keeps us living in unhealthy relationships or lifestyles. Sometimes I treat a patient exactly the same as I have in the past but they tell me it felt completely different. Once I told a woman that based on her weight distribution and genetic factors that she should be tested for diabetes. It seemed simple, obvious, and logical to me. She became very angry towards me, accusing me of calling her fat. Sometimes we do not open ourselves up and allow ourselves to be touched or to touch others.

If you have ever been touched by a stranger's presence, a story, a song, or greater yet the love of another, you know that the healing power of touch is much more than simply a mechanical stimuli. And even if my teenage daughter reads this and rolls her eyes, I know one day she will open herself up and truly recognize the healing power of touch.