In part 1 of this series on depression, we had a look at blood sugar imbalance as a cause of one kind of depression. In this post we could have a look at the gut-brain connection to find another possible cause, as all diseases seem to start in the gut. I will kick this consideration off with a short video clip by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, author or Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), on the importance of a healthy gut flora. Here’s a link to a website on the gut-brain connection. http://www.depressionanxietydiet.com/gut-brain-connection-depression-anxiety/Dr. Campbell-McBride makes a good case for why there is so much mental illness and depression in increasingly more and more people. Diet and nutrition obviously play major roles in mental health issues.
There’s a great article in Scientific America, which I will excerpt here just enough to entice you to read the entire article. I highly recommend this article to my blog followers and visitors.
Think Twice: How the Gut’s “Second Brain” Influences Mood and Well-Being
The emerging and surprising view of how the enteric nervous system in our bellies goes far beyond just processing the food we eat.
As Olympians go for the gold in Vancouver, eventhe steeliest are likely to experience that familiar feeling of “butterflies” in the stomach. Underlying this sensation is an often-overlooked network of neurons lining our guts that is so extensive some scientists have nicknamed it our “second brain”.A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body. . . .
“The second brain doesn’t help with the great thought processes…religion, philosophy and poetry is left to the brain in the head,” says Michael Gershon, chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, an expert in the nascent field of neurogastroenterology and author of the 1998 book The Second Brain(HarperCollins).. . .
The second brain informs our state of mind in other more obscure ways, as well. “A big part of our emotions are probably influenced by the nerves in our gut,” Mayer says. Butterflies in the stomach—signaling in the gut as part of our physiological stress response, Gershon says—is but one example. Although gastrointestinal (GI) turmoil can sour one’s moods, everyday emotional well-being may rely on messages from the brain below to the brain above. For example, electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve—a useful treatment for depression—may mimic these signals, Gershon says.Given the two brains’ commonalities, other depression treatments that target the mind can unintentionally impact the gut.
The enteric nervous system uses more than 30 neurotransmitters, just like the brain, and in fact 95 percent of the body’s serotonin is found in the bowels. Because antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase serotonin levels, it’s little wonder that meds meant to cause chemical changes in the mind often provoke GI issues as a side effect. Irritable bowel syndrome—which afflicts more than two million Americans—also arises in part from too much serotonin in our entrails, and could perhaps be regarded as a “mental illness” of the second brain.
Scientists are learning that the serotonin made by the enteric nervous system might also play a role in more surprising diseases: In a new Nature Medicinestudy published online February 7, a drug that inhibited the release of serotonin from the gut counteracted the bone-deteriorating disease osteoporosis in postmenopausal rodents. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) “It was totally unexpected that the gut would regulate bone mass to the extent that one could use this regulation to cure—at least in rodents—osteoporosis,” says Gerard Karsenty, lead author of the study and chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Medical Center.
Serotonin seeping from the second brain might even play some part in autism, the developmental disorder often first noticed in early childhood. Gershon has discovered that the same genes involved in synapse formation between neurons in the brain are involved in the alimentary synapse formation. “If these genes are affected in autism,” he says, “it could explain why so many kids with autism have GI motor abnormalities” in addition to elevated levels of gut-produced serotonin in their blood.
This may give us a new appreciation and meaningful insight into the adage “Listen to your gut feeling.” This article leaves little doubt about the importance of a healthy gut flora. There are numerous health products out there to help clean up your alimentary canal and keep it well supplied with friendly bacteria. Fasting is one way to give the gut a reprieve from its primary duty of digesting the seventy tons of food we pass through it over an average lifespan.
Dr. Depak Chopra recommends a one-day fast every week to foster the production of growth hormones and thereby add years to one’s life. I haven’t personally heeded his advice, but I have fasted for as much as seven days, and I can attest to the incredible impact fasting has on one’s mental and visual acuity and function.
Fasting is safer under the supervision of a health practitioner or physician and should not be done without proper preparation and professional guidance. I’m not going to spend time here on all the ways to help keep a healthy intestinal tract. That is readily available on the web and in health related books. I will only tout and highly recommend the 21-day total body cleanse put out by Standard Process Labs in their Purification Kit at a moderate cost of $250. That I make my readers aware of the gut-brain connection in mental health and illness issues, such as depression, is sufficient for this post. Until my next post in this series,
Here’s to your mental health and healing,
Anthony Palombo, DC
Visit my second blog at HealingTones.org for inspired writing on the spiritual and energetic aspects of health and life.
Heart Math Institute just posted this seven-minute video which fits right into the current series theme. Heart intuitive intelligence is a doorway to inner sacred technology. I think you’ll enjoy this clip. I’ll resume my series on Lao Russell’s book GOD WILL WORK WITH YOU BUT NOT FOR YOU next blog post.
To your Health and Healing,
Dr. Anthony Palombo
I welcome a newcomer from the Dominican Republic to my blogs. That makes 103 countries who have visited my blogs. Welcome visitor in Ethiopia! And Cote d’lvoire! And Bermuda! That makes 105!
ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BELGIUM, BERMUDA, BOLIVIA, BOSNIA, BRAZIL, BRUNEI DARUSSALAM, BULGARIA, CAMEROON, CANADA, CHILI, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, COTE D’LVOIRE, CROATIA, CYPRUS, CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, ESTONIA, ETHIOPIA, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GHANA, GREECE, GUATEMALA, GUYANA, HONG KONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAQ, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAMAICA, JAPAN, JERSEY (island), JORDAN, KENYA, KUWAIT LEBANON, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, MALAYSIA, MALTA, MEXICO, MOLDOVA, MONTENEGRO, MYANMAR, NEPAL, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, OMAN, PAKISTAN, PANAMA, PERU, PHILLIPPINES, POLAND, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, REUNION (Island), ROMANIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SAUDI ARABIA, SERBIA, SPAIN, SINGAPORE, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, SOUTH AFRICA, SRI LANKA, SUDAN, SYRIAN ARABIA, REPUBLIC OF (SOUTH) KOREA, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAGO (West Africa), TAIWAN, TANSANIA (UNITED REP. OF TZ), THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TURKEY, UKRAINE, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, VENEZUELA, VIET NAM, YEMEN, ZIMBABWE (South Africa)
As I stated in the last post, we can’t address mental health without considering physical health, since the mind arises out of the body. Conversely, we can’t really address the causes and conditions underlying physical heath without considering mental health. Further, we can’t address mental and physical health without including and addressing emotional health. The three simply exist together as a whole, an energetic continuum.
If we look even deeper in our search for cause, we can’t address health issues that arise in the outer man without considering the health of the inner man, spiritual health. The outer man is but an extension of the inner man. Now, the inner spirit is perfect, whole and healthy. If the outer man does not reflect the inner perfection, wholeness and health of the inner man, the spirit, then there’s a reason for this failure. The obvious reason is that the inner spiritual man is not able to get through to the outer material man. The reflection is either distorted or not there at all. This seems simple enough, doesn’t it? But, then, the truth is simple.
The rationale of any worthy healthcare service would, therefore, be to assist the individual inflicted with disease in removing the interference between the inner spirit and its perfect manifestation in and through the whole outer man. It would be, in other words, a wholistic approach.
This is why alternative healthcare is often described as “wholistic,” or “holistic,” as it is often spelled. The whole person is taken into account when searching for the cause of illness and putting together a protocol for treatment. In this post, I will offer some practical solutions along with a few natural, holistic approaches I’ve used in my practice of 49 years, as well as some that I’m aware of in the alternative healthcare field.
ALTERNATIVE HEALTHCARE GROWING EXPONENTIALLY
In the video of a conversation between Drs. Rupert Sheldrake and Bruce Lipton I posted in my current Healing Tones blog — and which I’m posting again here below because it contributes so much to our understanding of ourselves in the context of the new paradigm emerging — Dr. Lipton makes the observation that we have now past the 50% mark in this country of the numbers of those who seek alternative healthcare before going to a medical doctor. I find that most encouraging, and I feel it incumbent upon me to continue making a contribution into the process of transformation in consciousness underway and moving forward at an exponential rate.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND CONTROLS OUR BEHAVIOR
At the end of the video, Dr. Lipton makes a very important statement about the influence of sub-conscious programming upon our behavior. He states that 95% of our behavior is controlled by our subconscious minds while only 5% of our actions are consciously directed. That’s a bit scary. Basically, we are walking around in a state of post-hypnotic suggestion where triggers in our environment push buttons in our psyche that turn on tapes in our subconscious minds that play out in our behavior and outbursts of suppressed emotionally charged energy.
As an example of this, he explains how illness can be induced in our physical body by subconscious memories from childhood of how when we got sick we received lots of love and attention we didn’t get when we were well. So, in order to get the love and attention we deeply crave now as adults, we may subconsciously set about getting sick — physically and mentally, as well as emotionally.
So, I just wanted to bring this dynamic into the picture as we explore some of the natural healthcare solutions, always keeping in mind that while we may ease the symptoms of illness and balance body and brain chemistry with nutrition and herbs, the underlying cause remains untreated until we address the memories of past trauma and synchronize body and brain with present time conditions where there are no threats to fear and fight or to run away from.
NATURAL HOLISTIC SOLUTIONS
1. Bio-Energetic-Synchronization Technique (BEST) was developed by Dr. Milton T. Morter of Rogers, Arkansas. Dr. Morter is a chiropractor, researcher and developer, teacher, biologist and author of several books on health and consciousness. His work is a seminal contribution to the field of holistic health care. BEST practitioners are usually chiropractors who are trained and certified in this technique.
In just a few words, BEST is a non-invasive healing modality that accesses subconscious memories of past trauma that influence current behavior and underlie patterns of disease in the body-mind continuum. It includes a means of communicating with the innate intelligence of the body, using kinesiology (muscle testing — which Dr. Lipton explains toward the end of the video clip) to ascertain information that helps guide the practitioner in a process of finding and then “erasing” the memory ingram where the traumatic experience is filed away in the subconscious.
With BEST we can now erase past memories from the subconscious mind that are keeping a person in chronic stress mode of fight or flight and desensitize “buttons” in the psyche that trigger habitual emotional reactions to environmental stimuli.
Muscles remember trauma and can become locked in defensive physiology caused by sympathetic dominance. BEST can erase those memories and restore timing and synchronization between brain signals and muscle contraction and relaxation to take them out of fight or flight mode. When muscles of the back are so released from tension, the spinal bones to which they are attached and pulled out of alignment are able to return to their proper alignment without being forced to do so by manipulation, a discovery that was met with strong resistance by the powers that be in the chiropractic profession.
As Dr. Morter describes it, we can remove the “necessity for disease,” as disease is nothing more than a necessary adaptation to a deeper aberration in the energetic field. Healing the aberrations in the energetic field removes the necessity for the adaptation and, therefore, the manifestation of symptoms. The symptoms of disease remiss when the blockages in the subconscious mind are removed.
THE PROMISE OF CHIROPRACTIC
This is the fundamental principle underlying the philosophy and science of chiropractic and the rationale for the spinal adjustment, which is to remove nerve interference to the flow of intelligence between the brain and the body so that the body can heal itself, as the founder of chiropractic, Daniel David Palmer, envisioned and proved out clinically over a hundred years ago, and his son, Bartlett Joshua Palmer (“BJ”) further explored and developed into a professional science, philosophy and healing art.
Chiropractic brought to the world a great promise that spearheaded the emergence of alternative healthcare. That promise was in BJ’s “Big Idea,” whose time had come, that “The power that made the body can heal the body” and his “Law of life” which stated that healing comes from “above, down, inside, out.” Unfortunately, Palmer’s original philosophy gradually got watered down by a profession that failed to “get the Big Idea” and chiropractic devolved into a physical manipulative modality for relieving back aches and other musculoskeletal disorders. But its purpose had been served as alternative health care was given birth into the healthcare arena, which was already medically dominated and monopolized by the drug-based, diseased oriented, so-called “healthcare industry.” Chiropractic brought health-oriented consciousness to the fore of alternative health care thinking.
2. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) was founded by Dr. Gary Craig, who developed it into a practical methodology for emotional healing with fellow psychotherapists Drs. David Feinstein and Donna Evans. Their work is presented and detailed in The Promise of Energy Psychology – Revolutionary Tools for Dramatic Personal Change.
Basically, EFT involves a sequential “tapping” of specific energy meridians in the face, upper torso and hands that are connected to neurological pathways in the brain. You tap with the finger tips while repeating a mantra articulating the issue being addressed and an affirmation of deep love and appreciation for oneself. For example, “Even though I’m afraid of heights, I deeply and completely love and appreciate myself.” This plants into the subconscious mind a positive statement that will override negative feeling-reactions to situations in life, such as fear of heights, or even a physical conditions, such as obesity. For example, “Even though my body is overweight I deeply and completely love and appreciate myself.” There are psychotherapists who use this technique to give their clients something they can do between visits when issues arise, and it really does work in disarming triggers by “unwiring” emotional buttons.
You’ll have to purchase the book in order to study and learn the simple “basic recipe” for tapping. The book is worth its weight in gold for anyone having trouble managing emotions . . . but not just for emotional management and overcoming phobias. EFT works for physical conditions, such as chronic illnesses, like diabetes and arthritis, because it accesses and affects transformation of underlying emotional causes of disease. For example, “Even though I have diabetes/arthritis/heart disease/asthma/etc, I deeply and completely love and appreciate my body with its limitations.
EFT works for transforming one’s self-image and redirecting emotional energies toward creative enterprises. It works in clearing addictions of all kinds. I can’t think of any situation or condition where EFT would not be helpful in setting emotional energies free from suppression by old and limiting beliefs and inhibiting patterns of thought. I highly recommend the book.
3. Trophotherapy — the science of balancing blood and body chemistry with nutrition, specifically by the ingestion of high concentrations of whole-food nutrients. This approach often includes a form of reading the body’s nutritional profile and needs through kinesiology — muscle testing specific points in the energetic meridians of the body to ascertain information the body’s innate intelligence is willing to share about its biological, physiological and anatomical health status and remedial needs. Contact Reflex Analysis (CRA) and Quantum Reflex Analysis (QRA) are two popular methods of this science and art.
For example, the brain has a “master reflex” point above the forehead at the hairline. If this reflex point is “active,” it indicates the brain is in need of nutritional support. The practitioner then proceeds to test other points to try and determine what is causing the brain’s weakness. Sometimes it’s simply a need for vitamins and minerals, in which case placing a bottle of CATALYN (by Standard Process Labs) in the field of the person being tested will make the reflex point strong again, indicating that this multiple vitamin and mineral wholefood supplement will feed the brain and make it healthy and strong again. I have often found that the brain is simply starving to death.
OMEGA 3 FISH OIL ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL
The brain is made of fat, cholesterol. So feed it fat. Good fat, that is, and not the Omega 6 peanut oils used in commercially fried foods, most of which are overheated and rancid, nor saturated fats in beef and pork. Butter is a good fat, but not margarine. Margarine is hydroginated oil and is rancid. Rancid oil destroys “good” cholesterol (HDL) and tissue cells upon contact. People who take Statin drugs are hurting their livers and brains by preventing the liver from making cholesterol. The liver makes 85% of the cholesterol needed by every cell in the body, especially hormones, which are made of cholesterol, and brain cells.
HERBS FOR BRAIN ENERGY & MEMORY
To boost brain energy, one can use herbs like Ginkgo Biloba. To enhance memory retention, Bacopa Complex (by Medi Herb). To enhance memory recall, Ginkgo Forte (MH). I’ve had students take these herbs with astounding results: Bacopa during lectures and study hours, and Ginkgo before and during exams. They work great!
ADD & ADHD (click on it to see my blog post on the subject)
The problem with ADD is one of focus and concentration. I’ve treated many children with ADD over the years and all of them responded favorably to inositol supplementation, often the next day. They were able to get off Ritalin. They were able to focus and concentrate on their lessons.
The brain’s primary fuel is sugar in the form of inositol, which facilitates the transmission of electrical energy and signals between cell membranes. This sugar is made in the liver from glucose. Eating too much dietary sugar can compromise the production of inositol. That’s why kids who eat too much sugar don’t produce enough inositol for the brain. The brain doesn’t even have the energy to shut down at night. It runs all night and throughout the day. This is what ADD and ADHD are all about. They need to get off the sugar and take Inositol, along with Catalyn, Min-Tran, and Tuna Omega 3 Oil (SP). Email me for dosages. Inositol is also known to help with depression.
BALANCE MALE AND FEMALE HORMONES TO BALANCE BRAIN CHEMISTRY
Hormonal support is essential in balancing brain chemistry. First, we need to support the hypothalamus, the stress-response center at the base of the brain. Next, we need to support the pituitary gland, the master gland of the endocrine system. Then we need to support the adrenal glands, as every cell in the body and brain needs adrenalin to function. This is called the HPA Axis. Email me for a protocol and to obtain products.
I hope you have learned something about your brain and mind in these last few blog posts. I welcome your comments and inquiries. In my next blog post, we will go beyond the outer terrain of physical, mental and emotional health issues and remedies to consider a very special healing service called “attunement” which addresses the healing of the connection between the inner spiritual man and the outer form created specifically for its perfect manifestation. Until then,
Visit my other blog Healing Tones for thought-provoking articles from weird science to personal transformation and quantum leaps in consciousness. Enjoy the video clip below. It’s lengthy so you may want to watch it in parts.
This former drug sales rep says it better than I ever could. Pharma doesn’t want to cure any disease. It doesn’t dare to. Business is just too good. Listen to what Gwen Olson, a 15-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, among the “best of the best” in her field, has to say about the truth of what the drug industry is up to.
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We will continue this revolutionary topic in my next post, looking a alternative options and sharing some insightful thoughts on changing perception and consciousness. Until then,
To your health and healing,
Dr. Anthony Palombo
Email: tpal70@gmail.com
Visit my Healing Tones blog for inspirational reading on the Significance of the Pineal Gland and other articles relating to the 2012 theme.
My wife, who is a master’s level professional counselor, just brought to my attention an interview in the current issue of The SUN magazine by Arnie Cooper of Christopher Lane, “Side Effects May Include – On What’s Wrong With Modern Psychiatry.” In the interview, Lane, an English professor specializing in Victorian literature and intellectual history, exposes the hard facts about how mental “diseases” are reportedly multiplying. Apparently new disorders are being added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) every year.
In his tenacious endeavor to find answers as to why so many of his own students were on anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs, and as to the emergence in 1980 of dozens of new mental disorders in the third edition of the DSM — such “curious-sounding” diagnoses as “‘social phobia'” and “‘avoidance personality disorder'” — and especially as to “how and why those new disorders had been approved for inclusion [in the DSM] and whether they were really bona fide illnesses,” Lane found, to his dismay but not surprise, an active involvement of Pharmacia & Upjohn, the drug company who makes the anti-anxiety drug Xanax,“especially in the promotion of ‘panic disorder.'” He also found evidence of sloppy research and “dismissal of nonmedical approaches to psychiatric problems, and a degree of inventiveness with terms and symptoms that struck him as playing fast and loose with the facts.”
When asked “Are we getting sicker, or is something else at play?” Lane’s answer reminded me of the phenomenal growth in size of the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) over the last 50 years I’ve been in practice. I used to be able to hold the book in one hand and turn the pages with the other. Now, I have to place it on a table or desk to even handle it. It grew in thickness from about two inches to six, and much of that growth is due to the increase in new drugs that treat the side effects of drugs, what are called “iatrogenic (doctor-caused) diseases.” Are we getting sicker or have we become a drug-addicted and drug-damaged society? Lane’s answer is worth excepting from the interview:
The way psychiatrists define mental illness has itself changed radically. The first two editions of the DSM focused on observable traits and behaviors in patients, which were often described as “reactions” to particular incidents or stressors. When the third edition came out in 1980, it defined virtually everything as a “disorder,” which connotes an innate, lifelong malfunctioning of the brain rather than a moment of psychological distress that might be due to a brief change in circumstance. This new method of defining mental disease has completely transformed the way mental-health professionals and the general public think about it.
When asked again if it is possible that we are in fact getting sicker, he responded with alarming words about how the industry is viewing our children:
I think it’s difficult to gauge that accurately. If you follow the APA’s line [American Psychiatric Association], then most definitely we’re seeing epidemic rates of social anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder, with the latter expanding by an eye-popping 4,000 percent. But how did that massive increase come about? It’s due almost entirely to the fact that the DSM-IV formalized bipolar as a mental disorder among children. Before that, bipolar disorder was understood to be exclusively an adult phenomenon. Psychiatrists like to revise everything backward, to rewrite the past in terms of their current terminology. Doing so makes their new terminology seem natural, even inevitable. There are more than a hundred more mental disorders in the DSM today than we had in 1968, including incredible new ones such as “sibling-relational problem” and even “partner-relational problem.” But I’m not convinced that the introduction of new illnesses means that more people are actually sicker.
Lane then goes on to say this about the quality of the APA’s trials in determining the criteria for mental illness:
I have extensively researched the APA archives and can attest that their judgments were often flimsy and their rationale for including new disorders questionable, based as they were on anecdotal evidence, ambiguous clinical research, and highly inconclusive trials. One of the consultants for the DSM-III, Theodore Millon, admitted to The New Yorker in 2005 that there was little systemic research; much of it, he said, was inconsistent and hodgepodge. He was an active participant on the DSM committee.
Lane’s research seeded and spurred the authoring of his book in 2007, Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, in which he shares his observations of the evolution of the understanding of mental disorders which gradually began to include normal reactions to one’s environment and upbringing. Such normal behavior began to be seen as “innate conditions of brain chemistry, resulting from problematic levels of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin.” Under the expanded guidelines of the DSM, anyone who is shy stands the risk of being diagnosed as mentally ill.
GOOD NEWS TO THE DRUG INDUSTRY
“The new disorders were obviously music to the ears of drug companies,” he says, “insofar as they massively increased the market for their products, which the media greeted with incredible enthusiasm.” Of course the media would be enthused. In 2000 alone GlaxoSmithKline spent $92 million on direct-to-consumer advertising on a single drug, Paxil, a drug that has so many side effects and such dubious results that the company seriously considered shelving it only to turn around and make a blockbuster out of it with an annual revenue surpassing $1 billion. As Lane points out, they have to create and sell the disease to the public before they sell the drug. The expectation is that we will self-diagnose and hurry to our local pharmacy to buy their new product.
Are we going to continue allowing the drug industry to invent diseases and determine what behaviors and symptoms are to be included in the DSM as illnesses based on what new drugs they’ve developed that need a disease to treat and a shelf to fill in the drugstore?
“EMOTIONAL BLUNTING” A SIDE EFFECT
One of the side effects of all this massive consumption of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs is described as “emotional blunting,” a widely noted and studied phenomenon where people on these drugs may show little if any strong emotion in the face of catastrophes and environmental crises, such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or sensitive enough moral and ethical judgement that allowed space for risky bank practices and real estate speculation. Lane decries the lack of resistance on the part of Americans to Bush’s $4 trillion illegal and ill justified Iraq war, an economic setback that conservatives among us appear to have conveniently forgotten as they blame our present economic crisis on our Democratic President. Are we as a nation over-drugged to the point of emotional numbness where we can’t think clearly or feel compassion and consideration anymore?
IS THERE A RISK TO PUBLIC HEALTH? TO OUR CHILDREN?
Traces of Lithium are showing up in municipal drinking water, not to mention the homeopathic coding of our drinking water by the mere presence of these traces of antidepressants, antibiotics and other prescription drugs in the water. Mass medication is taking place without public awareness, much less outcry. There’s no public outcry either against the forced drugging of our children with amphetamines (Adderall and Ritalin – read my blog on this) instead of giving them a healthier alternative to sugar and caffeine laden soft drinks and refined carbohydrate snacks, although there is finally some movement in that direction by our school system.
Lane says that undergraduates are taking “neuroenhancers” . . . in large numbers . . . apparently not recognizing the difference between caffeine and what is essentially refined amphetamines. To the extent that real learning and deep efforts in creativity are being replaced by adjustments in brain chemistry — potentially involving tens of thousands of students across the country — I would consider that a risk to public health, to say nothing of a phenomenon that should raise concerns about academic integrity and cheating
A CHANGE IN PERCEPTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS NEEDED
I’ve cited this interview as an example in the healthcare industry of how the field of professional medical providers will gladly accommodate our demand for drugs to alleviate our pain, be it physical pain or mental anxiety and depression. That demand arises largely out of the way we perceive ourselves, our pain and mental anxiety, and the state of consciousness in which we form our perceptions, most of which are based on beliefs we’ve held since childhood.
An example that readily comes to mind is the automatic assumption, when pain arises, that something is wrong and a doctor is needed to tell us what’s wrong and give us something for the pain, preferable find and correct the cause of the pain so that we won’t need the pain killer — which is what I do as a holistic physician and people respond favorably to that kind of rationale.
NOTHING IS WRONG! EVERYTHING MATTERS!
My approach to pain and illness is that nothing is wrong but the symptoms do matter. The symptoms of pain and anxiety are important messages from the body that a change is needed in the way I’m living life. They matter, in other words, and we are not wise in our rush to turn off the symptoms with drugs, or high potency vitamins and herbs, for that matter, and thereby miss the message. For unless the message is properly perceived and duly heeded, the symptoms will return, only next time louder and more attention grabbing, for which the doctor will prescribe yet stronger medicine and/or more invasive procedures. So, while dealing with the pain for relief, let’s discover what the pain alarm is about so we can address the underlying cause.
A typical example of what I’m saying occurs in my practice on a regular basis. The patient presents with a chronic back pain for which various doctors, including chiropractors, were consulted and treatments rendered with no lasting results. Being a chiropractor, I naturally look for a structural problem, such as a hip or spinal vertebra out of alignment irritating a nerve root. But that’s already been done, so I listen more deeply and broaden my perception while tracing the symptoms back to uncover a deeper and perhaps more obscure and subtle cause. Invariably, upon muscle testing and a comprehensive investigation into the patient’s case history and life style habits, a bladder infection more often than not reveals itself. So we treat the bladder infection for a period of time with herbs and nutritional protocols and the chronic back pain goes away for good.
Another example is the chronic neck ache, the crick in the neck that just won’t go away, even with chiropractic adjustments. So we listen and look deeper for less obvious causes and invariably a lymphatic congestion reveals itself as the cause, resulting in lymph node swelling and tenderness in the neck So, we treat the lymphatics with herbs and homeopathic solutions and the crick in the neck, as well as the recurring or lingering headache, clear up. An adjustment wasn’t needed after all . . . nor muscle relaxers.
Often a stiff neck is simply a physiological response to emotional stress, the body asking for deeper issues to be dealt with and resolved. Here is where true counseling is needed. I offer BioEnergetic Synchronization Technique (BEST) as a non-invasive treatment for emotional and mental stress issues. Basically it’s a way of desensitizing emotional “buttons” that are being pushed by triggers in one’s environment and social setting.
We will continue with this theme next blog post with a consideration of some alternative approaches to depression and mental illness, as well as a look at how we can go about changing our perception and consciousness around health issues in general. Until then, consider a drug-free life style.
In part 1 of this series on depression, we had a look at blood sugar imbalance as a cause of one kind of depression. In this post we could have a look at the gut-brain connection to find another possible cause, as all diseases seem to start in the gut. I will kick this consideration off with a short video clip by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, author or Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), on the importance of a healthy gut flora. Here’s a link to a website on the gut-brain connection. http://www.depressionanxietydiet.com/gut-brain-connection-depression-anxiety/ Dr. Campbell-McBride makes a good case for why there is so much mental illness and depression in increasingly more and more people. Diet and nutrition obviously play major roles in mental health issues. 
HealingTones.org 