Category Archives: Functional Medicine

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Chiropractic and “The Hero’s Journey” in Health Care

I My Journey in Chiropractic and the Healing Field

My professional journey in life began when I turned twenty-one and left the seminary to pursue a career in Chiropractic. The year was 1961. I graduated from Chiropractic college in 1963 and immediately moved south with my family and opened my first practice in Crowley, Louisiana, in the Winter of 1963-64. The Healing Field was ripe for a new paradigm of health care and I was eager to deliver it. 

Little did I know then that my journey through the field of health care was to be a journey of the profession I had joined that was already engaged in a political battle with its nemesis: the medical profession, the Guardian of the Threshold leading to licensure as a separate, distinct and independent profession with a vitalistic philosophy and a drugless healing science and art.

A Battle for Licensure and Freedom of Choice

 

I joined in the fight for licensure here in Louisiana, my home state — as well as the battle for patients’ “Freedom of Choice” in health care, a separate journey and battle led by a group of passionate Chiropractic patients with whom we shared a common cause and a common nemesis.

After several years of legislative efforts — and court battles to stop the arrest and jailing of chiropractors — we finally defeated our nemesis in 1974 when Louisiana became the last state in the Union to license Chiropractors. It also became the last state to grant patients the freedom and right to go to the doctor of their choice.

The victory was a partial one, however, as licensure was not the ultimate goal of the profession’s quest. The ultimate goal, the Elixir of Immortality, was access to health insurance, the Golden Goose, well guarded by the insurance industry: equality under the law with Medicine in the reimbursement for Chiropractic services. Licensure was only a means to this end — an end that, to this day, Medicine is bent on denying chiropractors by controlling how freely and deeply they are allowed to dip into the Golden Goose’s nesteggs. After all, health insurance was a creation of medical doctors as a way of insuring they got paid for their services. So it’s their game and they don’t want anyone else dipping into their fee-pool. Stiff restrictions and fine-bearing compliance laws have been put in place via HIPPA, making it costly and time-consuming for doctors to file and follow up with reimbursement claims. Documentation has become one of the dreaded aspects of modern day health care, seconded by the escalating cost of malpractice insurance in a litigious society to which healthcare providers dedicate their lives of service. So, the insurance industry has become a nemesis to both professions by determining the amount of the reimbursement for services rendered. 

All this to say the field of healthcare — a misnomer in itself — does not have the same lure of attraction it had when I entered it some fifty-six years ago. Medicine continues to be a nemesis to the Chiropractic profession — but only as long as chiropractors worship at the altar of the insurance industry and hold financial remuneration as their primary goal, their Elixir of Immortality.

There is a trade-off, however, in this pursuit for insurance equality alongside Medicine. That trade-off is the surrender of the very soul of Chiropractic, nourished by its philosophy, which honors the Innate Power of the human body to heal itself naturally and without the toxic and invasive intervention of drugs and surgery. A motto of the chiropractors, once held religiously, was “Chiropractic first—Medicine second—surgery last.”

Sadly, that trade-off was made by the bulk of the members of our beloved profession, along with all but a few of its colleges, who continue in the sacred philosophical tradition of our Beloved Founder and developer, Drs. D.D. and B.J. Palmer, respectively.  

A schism has rocked the profession at its very foundation, sending it down the same lost path Osteopathy took, as many chiropractors began to look and act more and more like medical doctors, prescribing diagnostic tests, and in some states even delivering babies, all the while abandoning “principled chiropractic” and the holistic model of natural health care to embrace the reductionistic medical model of relieving pain and treating symptoms, settling for acceptance by their medical colleagues as musculoskeletal specialists, an area of expertise in which chiropractors excel. I suppose the saying “men must do what men must do”– as well as women — applies here. Change is what it is, neither good or bad, right or wrong. 

Heralds of Vibrational Healing

Chiropractic was born on September 18, 1895, through the heart and hands of a magnetic healer by the name of Daniel D. Palmer in What Cheer, Iowa. That places it at the fountainhead of vibrational healing and what today is being called “energy medicine.” Daniel Palmer had a large vision of his new healing art becoming more an energetic than a physical remedy for all of mankind’s diseases — or dis-eases, as his son, BJ, spelled it in order to describe illness as a lack of ease. This vision became the Palmers’ quest, their Elixir of Immortality. Their belief in the innate healing power of the body, along with the discovery of the spinal adjustment, led them to the central principle of natural healing: Remove the interference to the unfettered flow and expression of life energy and let the body heal itself. They took the “whole man” into consideration to determine the cause of dis-ease, along with the solution. That cause was seen as being “quantitative” as well as “qualitative”– physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual — or a combination thereof. In other words, they looked for the cause of dis-ease in higher levels than just the physical and chemical. They sought the cause of the cause of dis-ease. The obvious solution and cure, then, was to correct or remove the cause, the interference, and the manifest symptoms would simply no longer be necessary to signal a need for change — change in lifestyle and/or mental and emotional stress and attitude. The symptoms would then simply abate naturally. 

This was and is the essence of the Holistic model of healthcare, an entirely new and different model from the medical reductionistic model of disease management — both being essential in the healthcare arena; the ideal being for both to work together for the benefit of the patients they serve. 

Evolution of Health Care

As health care itself evolved, our professional journey merged into a collective and global journey of the Human Species in search for the Elixir of Immortality in the field of health-and-wellness care.  Building and maintaining a healthy physique has become the focus of health-and-wellness centers throughout the land. “Functional Medicine” is the latest buzz word among chiropractors who are exploring the benefits of nutrition in restoring function to failing organs, tissues and glands. “Clinical Nutrition” has come into the holistic model here in the West, as the cause of more and more diseases was found to be related to poor dietary habits and an “Empty Harvest,” as Dr. Bernard Jensen describes our commercially grown fruits and vegetables in his book by the same name. Depleted soil can only render foods deficient in vital nutrients, resulting in missing cogs in the nutrient chain, thereby creating an interference to the flow of vital life force in and through the body. This is a modality that I have found to be indispensable in my practice.

Acupuncture and several other techniques, such as BioEnergetic Synchronization (BEST), have also emerged as energy-based healing methodologies to take their places in Western Holistic Medicine.  Eastern healing traditions have long been harbingers of holistic healing and many of their traditions have found their way into our healthcare systems. Practices such as meditation and yoga have become popular, and gyms are popping up everywhere.

This revolution in health-and-wellness care has drawn the attention of the Guardian of the Threshold, the FDA and the AMA, as chiropractic boards began expanding their scope of practice to include procedures that heretofore have been the exclusive domain of Medicine.  With the emergence of Applied Clinical Nutrition, Contact Reflex Analysis (muscle testing) and Functional Endocrinology, such conditions as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and even autoimmune disease are being treated and reversed by chiropractors and other alternative practitioners, much to the objection of medical licensing boards. Law suits have been filed and fines levied.

This is not stopping the evolution of health care, however. People have awakened and started to assume responsibility for their health, a responsibility that had been placed with trust in the willing and able hands of Modern Medicine — which unfortunately has cornered the market on the treatment of disease, especially of Diabetes, Coronary Heart Disease, Cancer, and other autoimmune diseases. 

“Keepers of the Flame”

“Alternative healthcare” made its debut in the last half of the twentieth century carrying the torch of holistic healing into the New Age of Aquarius. Holistic practitioners began popping up throughout the healing field. The words Attunement and Sound Healing entered our vocabulary as energy healing modalities. I was introduce to a model of Attunement in the late nineteen-sixties that works with the energy fields around the endocrine glands, as well as with the Chakra energy centers of the Eastern tradition and Reiki. I later incorporated Sound Healing into my attunement service. The consciousness of humanity has begun to shift to a higher frequency of awareness that has awakened a realization that we are spiritual beings having a human experience rather than physical beings having a spiritual experience.

This realization was actually dawning as early as the turn of the twentieth century when BJ Palmer published The Bigness of the Fellow Within in which he tells stories about the “Giant and the pigmy”– the inner spiritual Self and the outer mental self, or the “Innate Intelligence” and the “educated intelligence.” This realization lit up his mind and put a fire in his heart that burned passionately for several decades and was carried forward by those who came to the light of his shining and became inspired to bring forth a new paradigm of vibrational healing.

As the fire began to cool in their hearts and the light began to dim in their minds, the torch was set aside in lieu or a “more scientific” approach to Chiropractic. Now the torch has been given to others to carry forward, along with a new paradigm of health care which honors once again the innate healing powers of the body. We’ve come full cycle back, or forward, to our humble beginnings as magnetic healers, only now calling ourselves “Holistic Healers” and “Energy Workers.” A few colleges still teach principled chiropractic and a small but passionate number of chiropractors still carry the flame in their hearts and in their clinics. The Torch has not been entirely dropped.

The table has been turned

Alternative health care has now become Medicine’s nemesis as more and more doctors are returning to school and abandoning the reductionistic model in lieu of the holistic model of true health care. Physicians of all disciplines are attending seminars to educate and certify themselves in clinical nutrition, herbal medicine and other modalities emerging with the holistic paradigm. It’s what the people want and are asking for, and the people have the final say in such personal matters as their health. And the irony of it all is that health insurance doesn’t generally cover alternative health care, a forty-plus-billion-dollar industry. 

The wave has been set in motion and it will dissolve the monopolistic stronghold Medicine has assumed over health care.  It will ultimately be defeated by its nemesis and be forced to vacate its self-appointed role as the Guardian of the Threshold to the health care arena.  Licensing boards will not be able to stem the tide of this revolution as doctors and non-medical practitioners in the field of healthcare dare to take on the reversal and cure of diseases only Medicine has held the legal right to treat symptomatically. 

It’s a new day . . . thank God! And I am glad to have lived long enough to see it and be a part of its dawning. God bless our doctors, especially our surgeons, whose hearts are in the right place of compassion for the sick and suffering and have only a prescription pad and a scalpel between them and their patients.  The vast world of Mother Nature’s Cornucopia of natural medicines lies open and ready to heal all our ills. 

Thank you for sharing my thoughts. Do feel free to share yours. 

Here’s to your health and healing,

Anthony Palombo, DC

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Balancing Your Gut’s Ecosystem

I have come upon an excellent video by cardiologist Dr. Steven Guntry that I believe everyone would benefit greatly viewing – well, at least to the first 30 minutes or so. The second half of the video is about his supplements, which are no doubt very excellent products, notwithstanding the high-pressure sales pitch. I think the doctor’s intentions are noble and compassionate and his heat is in the right place.

Disregarding the sales pitch, however, Dr. Guntry’s message is very sensible and worth the listening time. Our gut is truly where our health and our diseases all begin, and we are ignoring this fact by and large.  If you are having digestive and bowel issues, or you can’t lose weight, or crave sweets or junk foods, feel bloated after meals, suffer with joint pains, have food allergies, then listen to Dr. Steven Guntry’s presentation of why we have all these problems and how we can easily solve them just by choosing our foods wisely.  I will simply leave you to your discretion and interest with the link to Dr. Guntry’s video. Enjoy.

http://www.cutthecravings.com

In my practice I use ProSynbiotic by Standard Process (90C $39) and Gut Flora Complex by Medi-Herb (40C $31.50) with excellent results in balancing the gut flora ecosystem. For a consultation and to order supplements, simply send me an email at tpal70@gmail.com.

Here’s to your health

Anthony Palombo, DC – Doctor of Chiropractor and practitioner of Applied Clinical Nutrition and Functional Medicine)

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XenoEstrogens Are Giving Us Cancer

My Chorale Pic
In this industrial age of plastics derived from petrochemicals found in oil, we have created a toxic environment, both external and internal, which none of us can escape, not even our pets. The toxin is a hormone-mimicking chemical known as “xenoestrogen” which is essentially a synthetic form of estrogen.
Now, estrogen is an essential hormone in the reproduction process. It fosters growth and cell-replication.  Its counterpart, progesterone, slows down and even stops the replication of cells. Too much estrogen, however, without an appropriate balance of progesterone to check cell-replication, can cause unbridled replication of cells. This unbridled replication of cells creates tumors and has come to be called “Cancer” in our time.  The following article speaks clearly to this modern-day epidemic brought on by our ignorance of xenohormones and the harm they have brought  upon our heads. It is taken from the website of “Forbidden Knowledge TV” to which I subscribe. Read and learn.
Cancer will afflict 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in the US and 1 out of every 2 of those diagnosed will die from cancer. These numbers are set to nearly double by the year 2050, based on statistics collected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
It’s no exaggeration to call these numbers epidemic, on par with the 14th century bubonic plague (aka “Black Death”), which killed over 30% of Europe’s population.
My family has been ravaged by cancer. I’ll bet yours has, too. Are we supposed to believe that this hyper-acceleration of cancer rates is genetic?

With all of Monsanto’s biochemical wizardry, one would think that they could find another way to create pesticides besides dumping estrogen-mimicking carcinogens onto the world’s food supply.

In this video, Dr. Terry Grossman and Dr. Nick Delgado, discuss the relationship between cancer and these unnatural estrogens in our environment.

Decades of peer-reviewed research that has shown that harmful estrogen-mimicking chemicals are invading our bodies through pesticides, plastics (PCBs) and petrochemicals, among other vectors. Exposure to these “xenoestrogens” has been linked not just to cancers of reproductive organs but also of the breast, lung, kidney, pancreas, and brain.

Additionally, new research shows that all meats, even from animals raised without added hormones, free-range, organic, etc. are naturally very hormonal, such that today, most of us have accumulated up to 10,000 times as much estrogen in our bodies as our ancestors ever did.

The less severe consequences of exposure to these estrogen-mimicking envirotoxins (i.e., the preludes to cancer) can manifest as symptoms relating to both high and low estrogen, either of which can cause a range of problems for men and women.

A build-up of xenoestrogens can lead to gynecomastia in men (“man boobs”), as well as excessive accumulation of DHT (Dihydrotestosterone), a etabolite of testosterone, which binds to receptors in hair follicles and is the primary factor in male pattern baldness (which similarly affects some women). A little-known factoid is that men in their 60s and older often have higher estrogen levels than women of the same age group.

Exposure to these estrogen-mimicking envirotoxins can manifest as symptoms relating to both high and low estrogen. In women, excessive estrogen can lead to weight gain, migraines, depression, insomnia and a slew of other symptoms of hormone imbalance. Low estrogen in women can result in elevated blood pressure, heart disease and lack of libido, along with many other problems.

What can we do about this?

Dr. Grossman and Dr. Delgado agree that detoxification through sweat and our other excretions is important – as is the avoidance of   ingesting of these chemicals in the first place. This implies limiting or entirely cutting out our consumption of water in plastic bottles, meats, and other foods that can become laced with PBCs, especially when heated in plastic containers in a microwave oven.

Even with a strict vegan diet, the ubiquity of pesticides and other petrochemicals, which we are also inhaling from the air makes it impossible to avoid xenoestrogens completely.

Dr. Grossman recommends a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables from the Brassica family, such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, cauliflower, water cress, arugala, bok choy and broccoli, among others. These contain compounds which have been found to inhibit the development of cancer and its recurrence.

The best results from eating cruciferous vegetables require consuming 2 pounds (1 kilo) per day, which would be a challenge for anyone, so he also recommends the use of supplements containing the two key natural compounds found in this family of vegetables, DIM (Diindolylmethane) and Indole-3-carbinol, which alter the toxic forms of estrogen into their less toxic and beneficial forms.

Thanks to Standard Process Labs, we have an excellent product called “Cruciferous Complete” made up of kale (whole plant) powder and Brussels sprouts (whole plant) powder, both of which are loaded with these cancer-preventing compounds. Send me an email for more information about this product and how to purchase it.

Here’s to your health and healing,

Dr. Anthony Palombo, DC

Email: tpal70@gmail.com

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“The Cholesterol Myths” — A Book Review

My Chorale PicFrom my Health Light Newsletter — Rethinking Healthcare in the New Paradigm — of December, 2006. Enjoy!

A BOOK REVIEW

The Cholesterol Myths — Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease

by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD

Without question, the author did his homework  before writing this layman-friendly book. The bottom line: all the testing and studies done on cholesterol and heart health are flawed by bad science, bias and manipulation. Cholesterol has absolutely nothing to do with coronary heart disease (CHD). It seems it is a mere “innocent bystander” and that the real cause of cardiovascular disease is battered and worn out arteries the repair of which the body uses fat to patch up breaches in their walls, to reinforce them by making them thicker. What causes the arteries to wear out? Toxins and other free-radicals circulating through them, the primary offenders being insulin from high carbohydrate consumption and food allergies.

Homocystine and C-Reactive Protein are the more accurate markers for CHD. Their presence in the blood stream indicates inflammation caused by free-radical assault to the inner lining of the blood arteries and consequent impairment of blood supply to the heart, as well as other vital organs.

Myths Dr. Ravnskov proved to be false:

Myth I: High-fat foods cause heart disease.

Myth 2: High cholesterol causes heart disease.

Myth 3: High-fat foods raise cholesterol.

Myth 4: Cholesterol blocks arteries.

Myth 5. Animal studies prove the diet-heart idea [that heart disease is related to diet].

Myth 6: Lowering your cholesterol will lengthen your life.

Myth 7: Polyunsaturated oils are good for you.

Myth 8: The cholesterol campaign is based on good science.

Myth 9: All scientists support the diet-heart idea.

I would encourage anyone reading this who is on Statin drugs, or even considering taking them, to READ THIS BOOK! There are doctors who will not see you if you think for yourself and refuse to take their medicine. If you can’t educate your doctor, then you may need to find one who is more open.

Here are some facts substantiated in this book that may guide you in making important choices in the care of your cardiovascular system.

  1. Cholesterol is a substance vital to the cells of your body. Your Iiver produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production increases when you eat on Iy small amounts of cholesterol and decreases when you eat large amounts.
  2. The “prudent” diet, low in saturated fat and cholesterol, cannot lower your cholesterol more than a small percentage.
  3. The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs. Many of the cholesterol-lowering drugs are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life.
  4. The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, called Statins, do lower heart disease mortality, but this is because of effects other than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer, at least in rodents.
  5. You may become aggressive or suicidal if you lower your cholesterol too much.
  6. Polyunsaturated fatty acids [such as margarine and hydrogenated oils], those which are claimed to prevent heart attacks, stimulate infections and cancer in rats. If you eat too much polyunsaturated oil you will age faster than normal. You will see this on the outside as wrinkled skin. You can’t see the effects of premature aging on the inside of your body, but you will certainly feel them. Too much polyunsaturated oil may provoke atherosclerosis.
  7. People whose blood cholesterol is low develop just as many plaques in their blood vessels as people whose cholesterol is high.
  8. More than thirty studies of more then 150,000 individuals have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven’t eaten more saturated fat or less polyunsaturated oil than other people.
  9. Older women with high cholesterol live longer than those with low cholesterol.
  10. Many of these facts have been presented in scientific journals and books for decades but proponents of the diet-heart hypothesis never tell them to the public.
  11. The diet-heart idea and the cholesterol campaign create immense prosperity for researchers, doctors, drug producers and the food industry.
  12. The Chance of not dying from a heart attack over four to six years for a patient with CHD and high cholesterol is about 92 percent without treatment, and increases slightly to 95 percent with Statin treatment.

I like this conclusion by the author:

“In conclusion, the new guidelines may possibly prevent cardiovascular death in a small minority of patients with cardiovascular disease. But at the same time they may increase mortality from other diseases, transform healthy individuals into unhappy hypochondriacs obsessed with the chemical composition of their food and their blood, reduce the income of ranchers and dairy farmers, undermine the art of cuisine, destroy the joy of eating, and divert health care money from the sick and the poor to the rich and the healthy. The only winners are the drug companies and imitation food industry, and the researchers that they support.”

Most people I have talked with are intimidated into drug therapy by their physician. Here’s what Dr. Pinckney, former co-editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, had to say about that:

“Your fear of dying … may well have made you a victim of the cholesterol controversy. For, if you have come to believe that you can ward off death from heart disease by altering the amount of cholesterol in your blood, whether by diet or by drugs, you are following a regime that still has no basis in fact. Rather, you as a consumer have been taken in by certain commercial interests and health groups who are more interested in your money than in your life .”

American experimental psychologist Dr. Russell Smith studied the diet-cholesterol-heart issue with extreme thoroughness and concluded:

“The current campaign to convince every American to change his or her diet and, in many cases, to initiate drug ‘therapy’ for life is based on fabrications, erroneous interpretations and/or gross exaggerations of findings and, very importantly, the ignoring of massive amounts of unsupportive data . . . it does not seem possible that objective scientists without vested interests could ever interpret the literature as supportive ….”

Dr. Stehbens of the Department of Pathology at Wellington School of Medicine, and director of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, New Zealand, after doing his own extensive research and review of the literature, says:

“The perpetuation of the cholesterol myth and the alleged preventive measures are doing the dairy and meat industries of this and other countries much harm quite apart from their potential to endanger optimum nutrition levels and t he health of the populace at large . . . .  It is essential to adhere to hard scientific facts and logic. Scientific evidence for the role of dietary fat and hypercholesterolemia in the causation of atherosclerosis is seriously lacking. . . .  The lipid hypothesis has enjoyed undeserved longevity and respectability. Readers should be aware of the unscientific nature of claims used to support it and see it as little more than a pernicious bum steer.”

The author continues:

“Dr. Russell Smith criticizes a large number of leading scientists from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association, which he calls the ‘alliance.’ He considers their work “incompetent and sloppy …. The fraud is so blatant and so pervasive that it was considered necessary to take some liberties with the usual staid rhetoric of a scientific review and inject stronger language to emphasize the problem.'”

Noted Professor George Mann, now retired from teaching medicine and biochemistry at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, presented his arguments against the diet-heart idea as far back as 1977 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Ravnskov writes:

“Eight years later, when the cholesterol education campaign was getting into gear, Professor Mann summarized his criticism of the diet-heart idea in Nutrition Today. The diet-heart idea is the greatest scientific deception of our times, he said. Mann is especially critical of the cholesterol-lowering trials. Never in the history of science have so many costly experiments failed so consistently, he declared . . . .  People who are faced with the many distorted facts about diet, cholesterol and heart disease often ask me why almost all scientists unquestioningly accept the diet-heart idea. And you may have asked the same question after reading this book. Here is Professor Mann’s comment: “to loose their soft money funding, the academicians who should speak up and stop this wasteful anti-science are strangely quiet. Their silence has delayed a solution for coronary heart disease by a generation’. Professor Mann offers a little glimpse of hope at the end of his article in Nutrition Today:

‘Those who manipulate data do not appreciate that understanding the nature of things cannot be permanently distorted-the true explanation cannot be permanently ignored. Inexorably, truth is revealed and deception is exposed…. In due time truth will come out. This is the relieving grace in this sorry sequence ….'”

I have done my part to apprise my readers of this deception and to reveal the truth as I have discerned it in order to provide information that may help my readers in making intelligent and informed choices in their healthcare. [Portions of this report
were italicized by the author for emphasis.]

Reference: Dr. Ravnskov’s book was published in Sweden in 1991 and in Finland a year later. To order his book ask for ISBN 0-9670897-0-0.

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for inspiring articles. The Current theme is “Human Relations — Man-Woman Equality”

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“Osteoporosis and Hormones: The Whole Story”

My Chorale Pic

Laying down my pen

I am laying down my pen after twenty-seven years publishing Health-Light Newsletter.  I’ve left quite a legacy of print in my fifty-years of service as a health care provider and healer. I will continue posting articles from previous issues. I hope you will enjoy this one. Thank you for following me and sharing my blog articles with others. I bid you adieu with best wishes for your health and happiness.

The following article is from the Summer-Fall 2002 issue of Health Light. I first published it in my monthly column entitled “Your Body Knows Best” in the Lake Charles American Press.  I think you will find it quite informative. Enjoy!

Osteoporosis and Hormones: The Whole Story

In light of recent developments in medicine relative to hormone replacement therapy, exposing further the limitations of the medical model of health care, I thought it would be timely to write a series of articles exploring the alternative health care model and what it has to offer in this troubled area of hormonal balance and osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a condition of bone loss orchestrated by the body’s innate wisdom which has determined that some of the calcium in bones is needed elsewhere in the body, primarily to buffer rising acid in body fluids. The pH (potential of Hydrogen) of body fluids, in which all cells live, ideally is 7.2, which is practically neutral and slightly alkaline.

One of the largest determining factors of body fluid pH is the residue of digestion. Proteins and grains leave an acid-ash residue, because they require hydrochloric acid to digest them. Fruits and vegetables, for the most part, leave an alkaline-ash residue. (A chart is available at the center.)

Acid-ash has to be neutralized in the duodenum before it can be sent through the intestines. For this process, bile from the liver, stored in the gall bladder, and copious amounts of alkaline juices from the pancreas, are secreted into the duodenum as the stomach contents are emptied into it to emulsify the fats and neutralize the digestive acids.

The pancreas and liver make their alkaline juices from alkalizing minerals, such as sodium, which are stored in the body. These come from vegetables rich in organic minerals, which commercially-grown vegetables sorely lack. They are quickly used up keeping body fluids neutral for cell comfort and optimal function.

These sodium reserves become depleted in two ways: by over-consumption of proteins and grains and under-consumption of mineral-rich vegetation. When this reserve runs out, the body, in its wisdom, turns to the fluids and starts recycling sodium, such as is found in bile. When too much sodium is pulled out, causing calcium to precipitate out of solution and crystalize (contributing to stone formation), the body turns to the bones and starts re-absorbing calcium, the next mineral in line for neutralizing acids. The body’s time clock and survival mechanism kicks in and basically says, ”I can live with stones and osteoporosis, but I can’t live with my cells dying in these acidulous fluids.” Emergency measures are then taken in order to sustain and prolong life, the basic drive in all living organisms.

In his article on the subject in the July 4th issue of the American Press, syndicated medical columnist, Dr. Allen Douma recommends more calcium and protein in the diet. New evidence warrants caution in this area so that we do not consume too much acid-ash food and we balance that with lots of organically grown dark-green leafy and subsoil vegetables, such as lettuce, celery, spinach, radishes
and carrots, which are high in alkalizing minerals. Supplementation with organic minerals and barley green is an excellent safeguard measure as well.

Caution must also be taken to avoid “elemental” or inorganic calcium and other minerals (carbonates) which cannot be absorbed into the body. It’s only via the vegetable kingdom that we can receive the elements of the mineral kingdom. The vegetables chelate and arrange them in proportions we can use.

Milk is a high-protein food that takes sodium and calcium out of the body to buffer the acid it produces during digestion. All the calcium of a glass of milk is used up in this process, leaving not a single milligram for your bones.

For supplementation, calcium lactate or citrate can be safely taken. Cal-Ma-Plus, by Standard Process, what I use, is by far the best choice formula for increasing calcium levels in the bones.

Understanding Hormones and Drugs

With all the hoopla in the news lately about hormone replacement therapy (HRT), it might do us all well to review the process by which bone is replaced in the body. Over a seven-year cycle, every bone is replaced in your body cell by cell. Just how this happens is a story worth telling.

Bone replacement is done by osteoblasts, cells that generate bone tissue. Bone resorption is done by osteoclasts, which break out old bone tissue, thus making room for new. Both are essential to healthy bones. For example, if the old bone is not broken out, new bone cannot be brought in to replace it. The result is bone collapse from within, especially the long bones and spinal segments.

The hormone estrogen activates osteoblasts to produce new bone, just as it activates new tissue growth throughout the body. Progesterone, its partner, activates osteoclasts to break out old bone and stops the proliferation of issues. This is how estrogen is responsible for the production of neoplasm which forms tumors, and how progesterone helps stop and reverse tumor growth.

According to the literature that comes with them, Fosamax (alendronate) and Actonel (risedronate), two popular drugs given to “fight” osteoporosis, do so by inhibiting progesterone from activating osteoclasts. Old bone does not get taken out. New bone cells lay down on top of this chemical, now coating the bones, and form a veneer of calcium on the surface of the bones. This looks good on your x-rays and bone-density tests but is very misleading, because underneath this veneer is old bone now not being replaced by new. The result is hollow bones that will crumble under stress due to lack of internal structure and substance. The spinal segments are often the first to go in these cases where drug therapy is used. Women on Fosamax are known to have stress fractures in the spine.

This is one of many classic examples of the failure of the medical model of health care to honor the innate wisdom of the body. (For documented research on how medical prescriptions of estrogen without progesterone gave American women their breast cancer, read Dr John Lee’s book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Menopause.)

Dr. Lee, a medical physician, is doing the apologies for the rest of his profession and is busy reversing breast cancer in thousands of women, mainly by applying progesterone cream. Call the office for his video, which every woman should view, and for more details on how you can replace your HRT with natural hormonal support using herbs and nutritional therapy.

Estrogen and progesterone are made elsewhere in the body than the ovaries. Natural estrogen and progesterone can also be administered through the skin by a cream to control hot flashes. Natural Woman is the formula we use, recommended by Dr.
John Lee ($25 for a month’s supply).

Bone Production

We now know which came first . . . the chicken!  Why? Because only the chicken can make the calcium that forms the eggshell. Listen up. Chickens that lay a calcium rich egg every day, eat grains and seeds that contain very little calcium. Yet the droppings of chickens and other bird species contain substantial amounts of calcium. But why?!

A cow produces 1-3 gallons of calcium rich milk every day, yet the cow’s diet is low in calcium. Grasses are approximately .001 % calcium. But how?!

The truth of the matter is that animals and birds naturally produce up to 20 times more calcium than they ingest If a calcium block or calcium pellets are put out for animals and birds, they will not eat it Why not?!

Conditions such as osteoporosis, PMS, hypertension, depression and many others are, in part, a result of calcium deficiency. Why don’t cows and chickens have these diseases?!

Because they eat grass and whole grains, which are surprisingly low in calcium but very high in silica and other enzyme producing micro-elements. They produce the calcium they need from silica, just as we do, and it’s done by an alchemical process called
biological transmutation.

We actually manufacture bone tissue from silica and a number of other trace minerals, such as zinc, copper, manganese, fluoride and boron, along with many other trace minerals and organic minerals, which include, of course, calcium, magnesium and
phosphorus.

Dr. Louis Krevran discovered that animals and birds eat foods rich in minerals that actually biologically transmute into other minerals required for metabolic processes. Bone growth and strengthening is one of these ongoing processes. Seeds, grains, herbs and grasses are rich in organic silica. Silica is 26% of the earth’s crust. Studies have proven that animals and birds produce calcium as a terminal waste product.

Now here’s the important piece of the puzzle. Humans cannot assimilate a waste product such as synthesized calcium (carbonate) because the body does not know how to metabolize it That’s also why chickens and cows won’t eat it In fact, ingesting synthesized calcium causes the parathyroid gland to function inefficiently.

Other Dietary Considerations

Osteoporosis was relatively uncommon among the ancients of Egypt, Rome and Greece, and is also unknown among the Indians of Hunsa, Peru, Equador, Brazil and New Guinea. Their diets of herbs and botanicals, such as Equisetum and Alfalfa, were rich in enzymes, silica, iron, copper, chromium, vanadium, boron, tin, rhodium and other minerals not found in modem vegetable diets.
Equisetum is a plant containing the richest source of safe silica known to man.

Studies have proven that silica from plants can prevent osteoporosis and calcium deficiency diseases, or reverse them.

Green and garbanzo beans, leeks, strawberry, nettle, bamboo shoots, seeds, and whole grains such as brown rice, are all rich in organic silica and other micro-minerals. The Japanese have strong, dense bones because of the amount of rice they eat daily. Such whole plants and other nutrients are in the formula Bone Plants by Total Health Solutions (available at my office).

Exercise Unavoidable

As much as we would like, simply popping pills to correct osteoporosis is not enough. Changing diet and lifestyle is unavoidable, as is exercise. But how does exercise help bone growth and density ? The answer is quite fascinating. Let’s explore.

In physiology we learned that when a crystal structure of bone bends or is placed under pressure, an electrical current is generated. This current triggers the movement of electrons, which sets up small, measurable vibrations. The current, or perhaps the resulting vibrations, also stimulate cell growth and mineral deposition. Without these vibrations of electrical currents, bones begin to weaken, as we learned in outer space. Astronauts lost bone mass quickly without gravity to place needed stress on weight-bearing bones.

Exercise is essential to bone growth and strength, as it is to all the tissues of the body. Incorporate a spirit of enjoyment into your exercise program and you have creative activity that can only lead to health and strength throughout your entire body.

And now you know the whole story! Remember, your body knows best and never does anything without a good reason. Trust it. Listen to it. Honor it’s wisdom and help it with sound nutrition and natural, holistic health care.

You body already knows what it needs to restore its health. All you have to do is ask it. I can help you do that through my services. Sound nutrition and whole food supplementation go a long way in helping to release the innate healing power of the body by supporting the healing and restorative processes. Call for a courtesy consultation today.

Anthony Palombo, D.C.

(337) 802-5510

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for more inspired reading. Current theme is Human Relationships: The Law Of Balance

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Living Medicine Vs Pharmaceuticals, part 3: Herbs that Cure

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When you use a living medicine and get well, you feel that the world is alive and aware and wants to help you. People often talk about saving the Earth, but how many times have you experienced the Earth saving you?

My Chorale PicI’ve been sharing an interview with herbalist Stephen Buhner in THE SUN magazine on the efficacy of herbal medicine and the dangers of placing our healthcare system in the hands of the pharmaceutical industry, which the Medical profession relies entirely on when it comes to prescribing chemical drugs to relieve the symptoms of disease. While drugs do relieve symptoms – the reason people go to doctors in the first place – they do not effect a cure. They’re not designed to. Besides making huge profits for the Big Pharma, drugs are designed to relieve pain and mask symptoms — a purpose that has great meaning and usefulness in a hospice care facility but little if any meaning and value in a facility that claims to render “health care.” Herbs, on the other hand, are designed by Mother Nature to effect a cure. The main requirement, however, is patience on the part of the patient. (Pun intended.)

Herbs do not cure. Rather they give the body living medicine the body can work with to cure itself of disease. It is the inborn Intelligence of the body, of course, that directs the healing process–Life. And Life works within the time frame of its own wisdom and cycles. Drugs interfere with those cycles by nullifying the symptoms of pain and malfunction that trigger the healing process. Herbs facilitate the healing process. It just takes time.

For example, anti-inflammatory drugs reduce the inflammation in tissues and joints that, for one thing, stop us from doing what is damaging the tissues and joints. We won’t do what hurts. That’s the body’s wisdom at work, which we defeat when we take pain killers.  The other and main thing, however, is that inflammation is the first and initiating phase of the healing process. When you nullify this phase, you stop the repair process of the damaged tissue, which means you’ll never experience healing as long as you’re taking Ibuprofen or Tylenol or any number of other pain killers. It’s that simple.  Stephen Buhner tells his personal story working with herbs.

Ahuja: What was your first experience with herbal medicine?

Buhner: When I was thirty-four, I became quite ill with severe abdominal cramping. The doctors didn’t know what it was. I met a local herbalist, and she mentioned that a certain plant growing in the forest around my house was good for my condition. The doctors wanted to do exploratory surgery, but instead I ate some of the plant. The pain was about half as severe the next time it happened, and the next time about half again, until finally it just went away. After that, I began to take control over my own health.

Ahuja: What was the plant?

Buhner: It was a perennial herb called osha. I just dug up the root and began eating it. It’s got a spicy, celery-like taste. Not only did I feel my body getting better, but I could feel, inside, some living entity that cared about me. It’s difficult to explain, because it’s not something we generally talk about in the West. When you use a living medicine and get well, you feel that the world is alive and aware and wants to help you. People often talk about saving the Earth, but how many times have you experienced the Earth saving you?

HERBAL MEDICINES AND THEIR HEALING GIFTS

Here are a few herbal medicines with which I am familiar:

BoswelliaBOSWELLIA – is a natural anti-inflammatory that does not interfere with the healing and repair process. It rather helps it work faster. It is especially effective in the intestines when they become irritable. Cases in point are IBS, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s Disease. I use Boswellia Complex by MediHerb and Standard Process Labs, which is a synergistic combination of Boswellia gum, Celery seed,  Ginger, and Tumeric.  These and other compounds work together to:

  • Support the normal function of the kidneys to clear acidic waste products effectively, like uric acid that causes gout.
  • Maintain and support healthy joints.
  • Promote the body’s normal resistance function.
  • Support healthy circulation.
  • Support healthy response to environmental stresses.
  • Provide antioxidant protection.

Scan_Pic0005ECHINACEA – here is an herb for the immune system, and its healing gift lies primarily in its root and less in its foliage.  This herb does not stimulate or activate the immune system, as is commonly thought, but rather acts as a modulator to the immune system, regulating its response to various stress needs in the body. In the case of infection, it up-regulates the immune response and boosts the white cell count. In the case of autoimmune disease, it down-regulates the immune system. As with all systems in the body, balance is the key to healthy function.

Master Herbalist Dr. Kerry Bone of MediHerb has thoroughly researched this herb and here is what we now know about Echinacea:

  • Echinacea is both misunderstood and underestimated. There are many Echinacea products available which differ according to species, plant part, quality markers and dosages. The wide variety of products available is why there is controversy surrounding Echinacea and its effectiveness.
  • Echinacea is commonly thought of as an herb for winter season stresses and only for short-term use. Kerry Bone’s applications for Echinacea are much broader than this and you may wonder why this is. Kerry has spent many years both researching and prescribing Echinacea for thousands of patients. His passion for Echinacea led to the MediHerb research project and a greater understanding of Echinacea and how it works. For full details of MediHerb’s Research visit mediherb.com and search for The MediHerb Echinacea Research Story on the Echinacea – A New Understanding page.
  • The research results validate the traditional wisdom of Echinacea, and that is to achieve good clinical results you must use only a root preparation with high levels of alkylamides. An important aspect of any herb, or nutrient for that matter, is its bioavailability. Echinacea angustifolia and E purpurea contain high levels of alkylamides which are easily absorbed in the body.
  • MediHerb’s Echinacea Premium is the best Echinacea product on the market because of its high levels of alkylamides. You can tell if the Echinacea product you are taking is derived from the root by how it imparts a persistent tingling sensation on your tongue.
  • Daily dosage with Echinacea Premium (1 a day) will help keep your immune system balanced and ready to respond to the stress needs of the body.

BacopaBACOPA HERB – helps in the retention of memory. I have had students taking Bacopa while listening to lectures and studying for exams. This helped them retain what they were hearing and reading. Then, when exam time came along, they would switch to Ginkgo Biloba, which helps in memory recall.  MediHerb’s Bacopa Complex combines the herbs Bacopa, Schisandra, Eleuthero and essential oil of Rosemary. These herbs contribute key phytochemicals that combine with many other compounds to:

  • Enhance mental clarity and support cognitive function.
  • Support normal memory function.
  • Support physical endurance.
  • Ease the effects of temporary and occasional environmental stress.
  • Nourish the nervous system.

Ginkgo BilobaGINKGO BILOBA – helps in memory recall and has a variety of healthy benefits.  MediHerb’s Ginkgo Forte contains flavonoids, terpene lactones (including ginkgolides and bilobalide) and other phytochemicals that work synergistically to:

  • Support memory and cognition.
  • Promote alertness and mental clarity.
  • Help support healthy mental function.
  • Support good health in older adults.
  • Promote healthy circulation to the brain and peripheral areas of the body which is important for the delivery of oxygen and vital nutrients.
  • Support a healthy cardiovascular system.
  • Support and encourage healthy blood.
  • Provide antioxidant support to help protect nerve cells and other tissues.
  • Support normal hearing.
  • Support eye health.
  • Beneficially modulate cortisol during periods of stress.
  • Reduce the congestive symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.

GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE – is the herb of choice for diabetics in Australia, which many folks use exclusively to regulate their blood sugar. It literally nullifies the sweetness in sugar. When you put a little bit of Gymnema tincture into your mouth, or suck on a tablet, you will not be able to taste the sweetness in candy for several minutes. You will taste the flavor of a mint, but not its sweetness.  MediHerb’s Gymnema 4g tablet and its Gymnema 1:1 tincture deliver a powerful dose of this amazing sugar-destroying herb, which is effective in diabetic and hypoglycemic conditions alike. The complex mixture of saponins (gymnemic acids) and other compounds work together to:

  • Maintain healthy blood sugar levels when combined with a balanced diet.
  • Maintain normal cholesterol levels in a normal range.
  • Help support normal cravings for sugar in the diet.

I will continue sharing information about popular herbs and their benefits in my next post in two weeks. Until then, here’s to your health and natural healing.

Anthony Palombo, DC

CAUTION: Herbs are powerful natural medicines and should not be used indiscriminately. None of the above information should be construed to diagnose or treat any disease nor to preclude sensible medical care and professional supervision. Medi-Herb and Standard Process products are only available through licensed physicians and certified healthcare professionals and should only be used under the supervision of an certified herbalist or healthcare practitioner.

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for an interesting series of articles about the Golden Age of Aquarius.

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Your Lab Numbers Do Not Measure you Health

My Chorale PicI sat next to a long-time friend at a social event recently and, being a doctor, I asked him how his health was. He immediately proceeded to tell me about his cholesterol and blood pressure, both of which he said were “normal.” Now, that’s a pretty well accepted way most people measure their health, by their lab numbers, which don’t really say much about a person’s health. One can have “normal” numbers and still have a stroke or heart attack, especially if one is medicating to mask their symptoms to keep their lab values looking well within “normal” ranges and them feeling better.  But, what’s really “normal?” One man’s normal is another man’s illness and worry.

I put “normal” in quotation marks to emphasize that there really isn’t a one-fits-all norm — and so-called “normal ranges” are based on the medical model of treating the symptoms of disease, not fostering health. Medical students study cadavers that died from diseases and medical studies are based on treating the sick, not the well.  Generally, doctors don’t treat the well.  They treat the sick.  So their standards are based on the sick and not the well.  Also, what is “normal” for one person may not be appropriate for the next fellow.  I’ll give you an example. The “normal” range for triglycerides in the average person is <150.  The healthy range for triglycerides is much lower than that at <80, so I’m told by my brilliant colleague, teacher and clinical nutritionist at Whole Health Associates in Houston.  This points to a choice we have to be merely outside the range of health failure and disease or to be well above that range experiencing great health and vitality. 

THOSE WORRISOME CHOLESTEROL NUMBERS

Another example is the worrisome cholesterol numbers. In the first place, cholesterol has nothing at all to do with cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is caused by inflammation. Cholesterol is simply the body’s way of dealing with inflammation and the damage it does to the blood arteries and vessels. It’s a patch material used to keep the eroding  blood vessels from springing a leak. It’s an adaptation and not a marker for coronary heart disease (CHD).

It’s only in America where high cholesterol is said to be a marker for CHD, and that’s only been so since Big Pharma developed and started flooding the market with statin drugs (Lipitor and its cousins) to suppress the liver’s production of cholesterol, a fat that every cell in your body needs to build its outer membrane that protects it from free radicals and oxidation.  A fat that your body makes hormones, nerves and brain tissue out of.  An essential fat in your skin needed to turn sunshine into Vitamin D.

We elderly need more of this essential fat than you youngsters for our brains cells to regenerate as they begin to die off as we age.  So, higher numbers are normal and good for an aging person.

It’s the ratio between the HDL and LDL that’s important and not the total cholesterol.  Your HDL needs to be at least 25% of the total cholesterol.  For example, if your total cholesterol level is 200, your HDL level needs to be around 50.  The total cholesterol number will vary with the level of demand for cholesterol in the body. LDL’s carry the cholesterol from the liver out to where its needed in the body. HDL’s go around collecting what’s not used and then taking it back to the liver to be eliminated as bile from the body. Cholesterol is an essential fat in your body. There’s no such thing as “bad cholesterol.” That’s medical programming designed to engender fear in people so they will buy Lipitor and other Statin drugs. It’s pure and simple propaganda folks. Mute those commercials.  Don’t let that programming into your subconscious mind.  

The logical thing to do is not treat the cholesterol but rather determine why there’s an increased demand for it in the first place and treat the cause of the demand.  When you remove the necessity for more cholesterol, the numbers will come down.  In most cases, the cause is stress and high insulin in the blood stream from consuming to many starches and sweets. Insulin erodes the inner lining of the blood vessels if it accumulates too much. Food allergies and sensitivities are another trigger for inflammation.  Uric acid in the blood, as in gout, is another common trigger.

ALLOPATHY, HOMEOPATHY AND FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE  

Your lab numbers do not measure your health. They measure a momentary snapshot of the current conditions of your body fluids. That’s all. Your blood and your urine. That’s the terrain in which allopathic medicine works.  Your lab numbers say nothing about the health of your body’s organs and tissue cells.  That’s the domain of “functional medicine,” which is what I practice.

Allopathy is defined in my New World Dictionary as the “treatment of disease by remedies that produce effects different from or opposite to those produced by the disease: loosely applied to the general practice of medicine today, but in strict usage opposed to HOMEOPATHY.”  Those “different” effects are what mask the symptoms of disease.

Homeopathy puts a small dose of the same disease in the form of a coded water solution into the body in order to trigger an immune response in the body so that the body learns how to deal with the actual disease on a safe “do-no-harm” level. This works beautifully, and is completely harmless. 

Functional medicine explores organs and systems malfunction and then supports the body’s own innate healing intelligence with nutrition and herbs in order to catalyze the healing process into action.  Chiropractic also takes the functional approach, offering spinal care to restore nerve flow to organs and tissues and thereby restore their normal function.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE IS NORMAL

Here’s another example of numbers dictating one’s sense of health and well being.  High blood pressure is normal, given the circumstances in the body that require it. Blood pressure, like cholesterol, will increase in response to a need in the body for more pressure behind the blood flow.  It could be thick blood caused by toxins in the bloodstream.  It could be constricted blood vessels due to cortisol pouring into the bloodstream to handle stress.  It could also be kidney failure causing fluid to build up in the tissues and around the heart and other organs.  Whatever the cause, it doesn’t make a bit of sense to lower the blood pressure with drugs — drugs that deplete CoQ10, the very energy source for the heart and kidneys — without finding out what’s causing the necessity for higher pressure in the circulatory system and correcting that. That’s what we do in functional medicine: find the cause and correct the interference to the normal function of organs, hormonal glands and body systems.  Now, the person would be wise to take the HBP medicine to avoid having a stroke — and take 60 mg. of Coenzyme Q10 daily to replace what is leached out by the medicine.  This goes for anyone taking Statin drugs as well.

YOUR BODY KNOWS BEST– TRUST IT 

Well, I think that’s enough for one post. I hope you learned something from this one.  I will leave you with these encouraging words: Trust your body. It doesn’t make mistakes. It knows exactly what it is doing. Help it do its job better. See an alternative healthcare practitioner.  Stop measuring your potential for disease and focus on building up your health . . . and don’t sweat the numbers.

Here’s to your health and healing,

Anthony Palombo, D.C.

dranthonypalombo@live.com

Visit my Healing Tones blog for inspiring reading on a variety of timely topics.