Toxic World

 I am 58 years old. It doesn’t take an environmental scientist or health specialist to observe the dramatic changes that have occurred in our planetary environment and human health since way back in 1953. Our planet is sick, and so are we.

Quite simply, “there is no separation between environmental issues and human health.”

Back in the 60’s we used to say: when you throw something away…there is NO away. Another lesson we never learned. At only increasing rates, we continue to dump billions of tons of toxic wastes into our lakes and waterways, our soil, air, and food supply. And, either stupidly or naively, we believe it doesn’t harm the planet, or our health or the health of our children. 

“One of the most alarming disasters facing us today is the invasion of man made chemicals into every corner of the world, including our own bodies.”

Our planet and our bodies are under siege of a toxic load they can no longer bear. The evidence abounds before our eyes, yet we fail to see it, let alone act to change anything. Increased incidence of extreme weather is devastating the planet and becoming the norm, just like the rapidly rising incidences and pandemics of cancers-obesity-diabetes-and heart disease are ravaging the human population.

“A child born today faces high odds of developing at least one of the following ailments: ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, diabetes, obesity, cancers, abnormal genitalia development, infertility, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases. All have been linked with prenatal exposures to toxic chemicals.”

 Our delusional response is to increase medical testing and screening for earlier detection and treatment. This after-the-fact disease-care model conveniently generates massive profits for the health care industry (companies which, all too often, are either the same companies, or have strong ties to the companies, that are generating the toxic wastes creating disease) but does nothing to find solutions that stem the rising tide of disease.

           

Better to declare a war on cancer, and create another multi-billion dollar industry, than force industries to spend billions to stop polluting and clean up their toxic dumps. Corporations and their political minions will do nothing to adversely affect the bottom line or the economy. It is tough to realize that human life, and life on the planet, really don’t matter.

Our best corporate-sponsored scientists scratch their heads and write scientific papers authoritatively broadcast by the media as fact;  linking these diseases to the sun, animal fats, red meat, our genes, etc…all things natural; and never to corporate byproducts of toxic wastes, chemically raised foods and  artificial food concoctions, and toxic home and personal hygiene products.

While they struggle for explanations and answers, this third-grader’s science experiment lays it out for all to see with a simple elegance, that most often, characterizes the truth.

 As difficult as it may be to believe, it was President Richard Nixon who championed major environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act of 1970, which included national fuel economy standards for cars. He also created the Environmental Protection Agency. He called for new laws “that ensure that the price of goods…be made to include the costs of producing and disposing of them without damage to the environment.”

We would do well to heed the words of his 1970 State of the Union Address:

“The great question is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations, for we still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and that debt is being called.”

*Here is an interesting link to “to obtain your community report on land contamination.”

http://scorecard.goodguide.com/env-releases/land/community.tcl

ADDING HEALTH vs Fighting Disease

ADDING HEALTH vs. Fighting Disease

In the video below, Terry Wahls, MD describes her experience with MS. As an MD she was able to access the latest and best therapies for MS, but her disease remained unabated, following its usual course of progressive degeneration.

Dr. Wahls realized the limits of medical treatment and delved into her own research. She found “that brains afflicted with MS, Huntington's chorea, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's shrank with time,” consistent with the fact that their mitochondria (the power houses that manage the energy supply of the cells) did not work well. With ongoing research and self-experimentation, she took mitochondria-protective supplements (omega 3 fish oil, creatine, and co-enzyme Q) resulting in a slowing of her decline.

With continued research she discovered other nutrients vital to optimal mitochondrial/brain health and function and added them to her growing list of supplements. Then she had an epiphany, that she could “get all of these and possibly hundreds, maybe thousands, of other compounds that science had yet to name and identify that would be helpful to my brain and mitochondria.” Interestingly, she states that the medical and food science texts that she consulted were of no use in pointing her in the right direction as to where, in the food supply, to get these vital nutrients.

She goes on to demonstrate that the typical American diet is starving the body of vital nutrients necessary for the complex biochemical reactions that keep us healthy (let alone, consuming a myriad of processed toxic chemical foods), setting the stage for most chronic diseases.

Ultimately, Dr. Wahls found the Paleolithic diet, the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. You see, our genes have not changed in 43,000 years and are consistent with those of our Paleolithic ancestors; meaning that our DNA has the same genetic requirements for health (in terms of diet and exercise) now, as it did then.

The Paleolithic hunter-gatherer diet consisted of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meats, and water. Note the absence of diary and grains, especially wheat and corn (not to mention processed chemical concoctions masquerading as food). These were all foods that were added with the beginning of agriculture, about 10,000 years ago. Our genes have not caught up with these foods and, as such, these foods create food allergies that are responsible for a host of misdiagnosed, undiagnosed, unrecognized, and therefore mis-treated, health problems people suffer.

The short of it is that Dr. Wahl was successful in restoring her health and reversing the effects of MS. At this point, when I tell this to patients, they all respond: “Wow!”


1.      While this kind of progress would not be seen in everyone, this diet clearly needs to be incorporated into the healing regimen of everyone…i.e.: to change the paradigm from fighting disease to adding health through diet, exercise and stress control.


2.      While it is amazing that Dr. Wahl was able to reverse her MS, know that the body is hardwired for survival, to be self-regulating and self-healing…that health is nature’s default. Therefore, if we give the genetic blueprint what it requires in a pure form and sufficient quantity, and stop poisoning it…it will invariably make us healthier. How far back it can bring us is influenced by how much damage was done, how long we have had it, age, etc.

3.      What is more amazing, that most of us don’t see, is the everyday occurrence—the 350 pound person eating a diet of processed chemical foods, smoking cigarettes, living a sedentary life, popping a cocktail of prescription drugs. Their body is so hardwired for survival, while at one and the same time it is being deprived of the essential ingredients for health and being consistently poisoned, it still manages to keep this person alive, the best it can—trying to buy time until the person changes their habits—until it can no longer do so. And only then, systems failure begins…and the ravages of chronic disease progress. Now, that’s amazing!


Sadly, we have been trained to be so focused on fighting disease that we have lost sight of how to nurture our birthright of health.

Reader's Digest: 6 Rules for Using Alternative Remedies Wisely...REALLY?

Reader's Digest: 6 Rules for Using Alternative Remedies Wisely....REALLY?

This article in the October issue of Reader’s Digest is typical of the all-too-often back-handed praise the traditional allopathic medical model bestows on alternative therapies. The main message to patients is to use alternative therapy with caution; implying that it may be dangerous and/or possibly delay real medical care at the risk of peril, at worst…and a waste of money, at best.

 

Except for #1 and  #4 below, I don’t take issue with their specific rules of engagement. Those two aside, the remaining rules are reasonable. So what is my problem here, and why blog about it?

 

The most glaring and rankling observation I make is the holier than thou blanket statements. After all, shouldn’t the patient follow the same 6 rules for using medical doctors, drugs and surgeries?

(Note: my comments are in RED)

 

6 Rules for Using Alternative Remedies Wisely

from Reader's Digest October 2011  Kathi Kemper, MD, chair of the complementary and integrative medicine department at Wake Forest School of Medicine

1. Discuss it with your doctor first. Most physicians are surprisingly open-minded about complementary therapies, our experts say. I suspect that many MD’s may be open-minded to alternative therapies, but certainly not most. I suggest it often boils down to geographic location and community mindset; ie. if the community is prone to alternative therapies, it will attract more MD’s open to them as well. Always tell your doctor about herbs or supplements you’re taking because some interact with medications. How is this any different than telling your doctor about other medications that you may be on from other MD’s? Ask for evidence. Ask your MD for independent evidence (NOT corporate sponsored studies performed and published by the pharmaceutical and medical supply manufacturers...which are beyond biased, and outright corrupt) that supports their recommendations as well. While the medical community speaks as if all they do is supported by hard evidence, only 15% of everything MD’s do (from drugs, to surgeries, tests, procedures, etc) has the type of double blind evidence that they demand of all other forms of therapy.

2. Testimonials are not enough.  If you’re not sure whether something is legit, check it out on the site for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (nccam.nih.gov) or the National Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus (nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus) or other evidence-based sites, such as mayoclinic.com. Beware of red flags. Clearly, the same is true for all medical treatments as well…only more so, because the fatal and disabling consequences of medical care gone awry are way more prevalent…beyond comparison!

3. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember that problems that have stumped medical science, like Alzheimer’s, are magnets for snake oil salesmen. Request references. Again, it is foolish, and more dangerous, to believe otherwise of medical treatments.

4. A legitimate practitioner will be able to offer references from at least two medical doctors and be willing to work with your physician.  A good place to start your search: the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine (imconsortium.org).Choose herbs and supplements wisely. While it can’t hurt to ask your MD if they have heard anything (good or bad) about a particular alternative health practitioner, their word should not be final. It is too often akin to asking the manufacturers of Coke if you should drink Pepsi. Opinions and referrals of satisfied patients, for both medical and alternative practitioners, are always a good idea.

5. The label should include a list of ingredients and an expiration or best-used-by date. Keep in mind that these products aren’t regulated as tightly as drugs; ones from developing countries sometimes contain heavy metals like lead, other herbs, or pharmaceuticals. Add a layer of protection by consulting consumerlab.com, which tests supplements for contamination and strength. Its website provides buying advice; $2.25 per month gives you access to all its reports. One should always know as much as possible about what one puts in one’s mouth! I suggest it would be very difficult to find any statistically significant incidence if harm done by supplements. On the other hand, prescription medications (mostly, used as prescribed (>100,000 deaths/year)…but also legal prescriptions used illegally (~40,000deaths/year) ) are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Again, there is no comparison between the pandemic deaths caused by pharmaceutical drugs and miniscule incidence of harm caused by herbs and supplements. Understand the limits. One of the greatest fallacies perpetuated by the medical community is that medical care fixes anything and everything that ails you.  Let's be clear: the only thing that heals you, is YOU.

The medical model is a disease model whose invasive interventions (drugs/surgery) work to coerce the body to comply. In extreme cases, these major medical interventions can border on the miraculous, buying time for the body’s immune and healing responses to kick in. If the problem/disease/injury has exceeded your body’s ability to heal itself, extreme medical measures may only succeed in keeping you alive longer than you wish. More importantly, this invasive and chemically-based model applied to everyday health has proven disastrous.

Alternative health practitioners typically guide patients to lifestyle choices that promote health and direct care at supporting the body’s innate capacity for self-regulation and self-healing.

We would be better served if we truly understood the limitations of medical interventions.

6. Complementary medicine should be just that—an addition to conventional care. It shouldn’t be a substitute for seeing your doctor….and seeing your doctor, having and passing regular scans of all sorts, and taking routine prescription drugs shouldn’t be equated with being healthy, or disarm you from taking responsibility for your health by committing to a lifetime, lifestyle of health and wellness.

Upshot: people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Modern medicine needs to stop creating fear and casting aspersions about Alternative Therapies and look to cleaning its own house.

Modern medicine is the leading cause of death in America. The statistics are more than frightening. This statistic alone is mind numbing:

“In the US, over 12,000people die every week (624,000/year) from health care gone awry. These aren’t people who die because of the illness or injury that brings them to the doctor. These are people who die because of the care they receive once they get there.”

The Essential Ingredients for Health

The Essential Ingredients for Health

Ultimately, making a pie is a pretty simple chemistry project; follow a recipe of a handful of ingredients and a few steps.

Use the right ingredients and follow the directions and shazzam, you have a delicious pie.

Alter the ingredients (leave one or more out, increase/decrease the amount of some, add a few things,

etc.) and modify the directions (skip a step, change the temperature/time, etc) and everything

changes…no delicious pie.

That's pretty straightforward; most people get it and few, if any, would argue it.

Now, imagine the ingredients and requirements to build and run the complex and precise biochemistry of the human mind/body.

What happens when you leave out some essential ingredients (nutrients), add other toxic ingredients (processed chemical foods, additives, pharmaceutical drugs, chemically laden body/bath products, inhaled pollutants, etc), don’t bake it long enough (induced labor/planned c-section), etc.?

For most, understanding this is not as straightforward; most people don't get it, and worse, they don't care.

The simple point is: you can’t even bake a pie without the right ingredients.

How can you expect to create and have a healthy mind/body without putting in the right ingredients (nutrients) while adding a plethora of toxic chemicals?

Answer: You can’t; you can't create a healthy baby or a healthy you.

Your DNA has species specific nutrient requirements to make you and support good health.

Those basic essential ingredients include:

            Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds; more towards organic, locally grown, raw (when possible),         and in season.

            Meat/poultry/fish: more towards wild/free range, grass fed, organically raised, anti-biotic free

            Water

            Sunlight

            Exercise

            Essential supplements include: Omega 3 fish oils, Probiotics, and Vitamin D.

At the same time we need to stop poisoning the system with:

            Processed, chemically-laden foods and drinks

            Chemically-laden personal hygiene products

            Pharmaceutical drugs

            Sedentary, in-door lifestyles

            Etc.

Your DNA is programmed ONLY for survival, and health is nature’s most basic survival mechanism: ie..you are programmed to BE healthy.  Supply your DNA/body with what it needs, and stop poisoning it, and it will maximize your potential for health.

OCCUPY YOUR LIFE II : you will smile watching this!

(double click on video for full screen) 

Occupy Your Life

Occupy Your Life

If it were up to me the word of the year for 2011 would be Occupy, consistent with Time Magazine's designated Person of the Year: The Protestor.

I fully support and embrace The Occupy Movement and have written my own manifesto of grievances and demands, excerpted below:
Of this we are certain:

1. The system is broken and corrupt and the fix will NOT come from those who created these problems.
2. The status quo will only guarantee and accelerate our demise and as such, is unacceptable.
3. The fix requires a new paradigm; one that values people over profits, and sustainability of life on the planet over unsustainable corporate growth/profits.

Goal:

We are part of a global movement. It is our responsibility, as American and World Citizens and patriots, to reclaim our democracy and restore world peace, social and environmental justice.

Solutions:

As environmentalist/activist Paul Hawkin said: “The solution will be found in diversity. This movement is humanity’s immune response to resist and heal political disease, economic infection and ecologic corruption caused by ideology.”

Fixing the daunting problems we face will require that we work both within and outside of the system.

(For the purpose of this blog, Occupy Your Life, I will skip to the relevant changes at the personal level that I deem necessary to facilitate and create the global change we need.)

The single greatest thing we can do outside of the system is to unite in our vision, cause efforts, and voice.

Along the way to the revolution, we too have to change. It would be hypocritical to believe and act otherwise. We cannot do business as usual and expect different results and things around us to change. As Gandhi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Things we can do:

1. Make your health a top priority; take personal responsibility for your life and health, to the extent that you are able.
2. Become a critical thinker: actively resist and then analyze ALL information and the source (i.e.: follow the money), rather than passively accepting and absorbing whatever you hear, from whatever source.
3. Learn more and raise your standards of what you demand of yourself.
4. Make your family and your children a top priority; spend time with, and educate, your children.
5. Turn off the TV. Stop listening to the propaganda and fear mongering.
6. Create, or join, an employee union.
7. Become a political activist; find and join causes that support humanity and our planet.
8. VOTE! And, vote out all career politicians (more than 10-15 years in office).
9. Socialize: find reasons to unite with people to find commonality.
10. Buy local: support small local businesses and farms.
11. Go green.
12. Plant your own garden and learn how to cook good food. Minimize eating of all crap processed foods.
13. Vote with your dollars. Do not support any corporation or financial institution that undermines our personal and/or financial health and new our world order of We The People.
14. Repeatedly and relentlessly, call and lobby your politicians, at every level, to represent the interests of We the People…and inform them of the consequences of their failure to do so.
15. Generally, as best possible, spend less and save more. Buy within your means. Buy less of what you want, and focus on what you need.

If not me, then who?
If not now, then when?    Hillel

A Doctor's Touch

A Doctor's Touch

One of the most important things in life anyone can have is a caring and competent medical doctor, the likes of Dr. Abraham Verghese, the doctor in this video.

His call for touch, while foreign to medical doctors today, is routine to chiropractors. In fact, it is the origin of the word (from the Greek: cheir- referring to the hand, and praktos, meaning done....ie; done by hand).

As a chiropractor I have always been honored and moved by the doctor-patient relationship; the histories and emotions patients share; the trust they place in me, and that they let me touch them, to examine and treat them.

Sadly, for many people, I may be the only other human contact they have that, or any other, day. And, the importance of caring human touch/contact, in our culture, is way undervalued and poorly understood. I know, and am acutely aware, that I too, benefit from that very human contact and connection with my patients.

In early childhood touch could actually be considered a vital nutrient. ”Failure to thrive is a medical condition where an infant/child fails to grow or gain weight appropriately over a consistent period of time. In orphanages, the number one cause of Failure to Thrive is simply a lack of touch, stimulation and love. A child may even die due to missing these essential requirements for growth.”

I would suggest that older children and adults also fail to thrive without contact and touch. In fact, research indicates that even owning a pet (which implies contact and touch) helps the elderly live longer. That’s how important touch is!.

Recall the rush of holding the hand of someone you love; the healing touch of your mother's hand when you bumped your head or hurt yourself; the energy that passes between two people in a caring embrace.

We are electro-chemical--energy beings and what passes between us in a touch with good intentions, has very nurturing and healing properties.

It is more than obvious that working with patients goes beyond technology and absolutely requires a healing touch. I feel privileged to be licensed to speak with and to touch people in the context of helping them reclaim their lives by reclaiming their health.