My Doctor Says My Lab Tests are Normal,

but I feel Horrible!

Unfortunately, this is an all too common theme.  Patients, who have been struggling with health symptoms visit their doctors looking for answers, only to be left frustrated and still searching for help.

The Scenario…

A patient walks into the doctor’s office and waits 30-45 minutes, past their appointment time, to see the doctor.  Dr. “X” comes in and spends 5-10 minutes listening to the patients’ symptoms, barely making eye contact, AND proceeds to tell the patient “your lab tests look normal”.

Dr. X, hurriedly tells the patient, “try to get more rest, eat healthier and exercise…let’s see you again in 3-6 months”!

Does that sound familiar?

For some patients, they have gone through this hypothetical scenario one too many times, and now they are losing hope they can ever heal.

After helping thousands of patients over my 10+ years as an Integrative/Functional Medicine Doctor, I can tell you this story has been told me hundreds of times.  I can usually finish the patient’s sentence…which catches them off guard, but at the same time makes them feel comfortable knowing that I understand their situation.

Groundhog Day!

While I was not a fan of the movie, the Bill Murray hit rings true with many chronic health patients.  Patients that have struggled with a chronic health condition, like an autoimmune thyroid condition (since I specialize in thyroid gland disorders, I will use these patients as an example), are sick and tired of being, sick and tired!  All they want are answers and the proper guidance.

Laboratory Ranges Are Incorrect!

Stating that laboratory ranges are incorrect is rather a bold statement!  Hang tight, soon, you will be asking why no one has shared this information with you before.

Think for a moment about the patients who get their blood work drawn and tested.  Are they usually the healthiest of people?  Not usually!  Most of the time, these patients are getting blood work drawn because something is WRONG! 

Imagine you are back in school for a moment and the teacher is discussing ‘grading on a curve’!  Grading on a curve means the teacher is going to throw out the extreme best score and the extreme worse scores and come up with an average range of scores to grade on.

Lab tests work similar and this is where patients get caught in the middle, literally!

With all the data from the unhealthy patients’ lab results, a “range” is extrapolated and used to compare your results to.  If you fall within this range, things are “good”.  If you go outside the extremes (remember the grading on a curve analogy from earlier) the doctors will tell you, “Mrs/Mr. Smith your test result is higher/lower than it should be. 

This is only told to a patient IF their test result is outside the extremes.  If you are not outside of those parameters, you will be told “your blood tests look normal”!

Remember, your results are now being compared to the unhealthy population!  Do YOU want to be compared to unhealthy people or HEALTHY people? 

As soon as I ask that, most of you are probably thinking, “compare me to healthy people, not those dang sick people!”  I agree, and so do a lot of other doctors in the alternative health world.

Enter in the Functional Ranges!

I want my body FUNCTIONING at peak performance!  What about you?  You do as well?  Excellent!!!  So, we agree on that…let’s keep going.

If we take 1,000 healthy people’s blood results, we can then come up with a healthy or “functional” range! 

Now, do you want to compare your results to those unhealthy patients’ ranges or to the healthy patients’ ranges? If you are like most of my patients, you answered, “healthy patient ranges”!

Cool, we agree on that as well. 

As long as your lab results are within the functional ranges, your life is great!  But, let’s say you are in a tough occupation that makes you work swing shifts.  Your sleep patterns are constantly changing, and on top of those changes your marriage is a little rocky because you are not home enough with the family.  You have two stressors, one physical and one emotional, all affecting your body’s ability to function properly.

Let’s say this continues for 6-9 months. Now, your energy is dropping, you have put on some weight, divorce is lingering and your company is laying people off.  MORE STRESS!

Headaches begin to occur, you feel you can’t sleep enough hours in the day to help improve your energy, and to make matters worse your joints are now aching.

What do you do?  You visit your doctor, the doctor runs some tests, but your results come back NORMAL!  You and the doctor chalk your symptoms up to stress.  The doctor gives you a prescription for some NSAIDS and recommends to come back in 6 months.

6 months down the road…

The job hasn’t improved, your sleep is worse, along with the headaches and your relationship with your family is severely strained.

Now, you are having heartburn, bloating, and getting light-headed during the day.  You visit your doctor again, the doctor runs some blood work, and says “Mrs/Mr. Smith, look at your cholesterol!  Your blood pressure is elevated and your thyroid marker, TSH, is really high!  I am going to prescribe a statin to lower your cholesterol, high blood pressure medication for your elevated BP, an antacid for the heartburn and Synthroid for your thyroid.”

6 months ago, your labs were normal and the doctor told you stress was causing your symptoms.  Now, you are on 5 medications and feeling horrible.  Could this have been prevented? 

I guarantee if you were looking at your original blood test results with the functional, more optimal, range there would have been warning signs indicating that the body was NOT functioning properly and some lifestyle changes could have been made.

Now, because almost a year has gone by, you are on medications, but the medications have some unwanted side effects AND your original symptoms have not improved, only your blood pressure has gone down due to the medication.

Look at the picture below, this sums up the ranges we discussed.  In the green, you have the healthy ranges.  This is where you want to be!

If you start going outside of the green area, you are now functionally high/low.  This is where doctors like myself “operate” in!  Once you are here, you can have symptoms, but your doctors are not picking up on the issue because you are not in the red or yellow, the extremes!

However, if I can see that your results are functionally high/low, I can begin helping your body heal BEFORE you have MAJOR issues!  Keep in mind, traditional doctors are taught to prescribe medications or perform a surgery, extreme measure = extreme ranges!

Make sense? 

Now you are probably asking, how can you compare your blood results to the functional ranges!  Easy peasy…call me! 

That is right, pick up that phone, call (866) DrKing-1.  Tell my staff member, Ms. Norris, that you want to schedule a complimentary consultation for us to discuss your health condition. 

If I feel that we should begin digging into your health condition, I will recommend the next step for you!

Let’s save you some heartache, frustration, time and money…by figuring out your health issues, NOW!

I look forward to speaking with you soon!

P.S. – One of my favorite books titled, Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? When My Lab Tests Are Normal.

Do You Need Your Thyroid Gland Removed?

At least once a week, a patient contacts me asking, “Dr. King, should I have my thyroid gland removed?”  To which I answer, “that depends”.

The first question I ask is, “why did you doctor say you need to have your thyroid gland removed?”  Some common responses are the following:

• I don’t know. They just said I should have it taken out since the doctor can’t get my health condition under control
• I have cancer
• I have nodule(s) and they are concerned it/they could be cancerous
• I have difficulty swallowing/breathing
• I have Hashimoto’s Disease

I am sure, if you have been told to surgically remove your thyroid, you may have heard one of those comments, or something similar.

The Doctor Can’t Get My Condition Under Control

I am not joking with that statement.  Last week, a patient reached out to me and said, “my doctor can’t get my health condition under control, so they want to remove my thyroid”!

Are you freaking kidding me?  A doctor, who can’t manage a thyroid condition properly, wants to take the organ out!  Why?  The thyroid gland serves a purpose, and with it gone, getting your body working optimally will be quite difficult, especially, in the medical model.

So, the doctor, who has failed to manage this patient properly, simply resorts to removing the organ.  Oh my, my! 

I encouraged this patient to ask more questions and get more tests ran. 

A big piece of the puzzle for thyroid patients and the traditional medical model is 90% of hypothyroid patients have an autoimmune condition.  It doesn’t matter what medications the doctors give the patient, their health condition will never be under control and managed properly. 

Why?  Because thyroid hormones prescribed from the doctor will NOT control the autoimmune condition.  Remember, a pill will not heal the body!

I Have Cancer!

Ok, this is the one reason, I believe, for removing the thyroid gland.  If a patient knows they have thyroid cancer (more than likely, their doctor did a biopsy and discovered a malignant form of cancer), I recommend having the cancer removed (thyroid gland).

What about natural cancer treatments, Dr. King?  Sure, I support those who seek to heal their cancer, naturally.  As long as they have a great doctor that knows what they are doing.  Treating cancer naturally, is quite difficult, as there are numerous steps a patient should be taking to help their body fight the cancer. 

What happens after the thyroid gland is gone?  It is quite simply, really.  The patient would need to be on some type of thyroid hormone, forever!

With that being said, my father does NOT have his thyroid gland anymore.  About 10+ years ago, he was diagnosed with 4^th stage throat cancer.  During the radiation, his doctors destroyed his thyroid, “accidentally”. 

Since we discovered this (which his doctors didn’t even tell him), he has been on natural thyroid support (not medication), and has been doing great.  He is one of the pilots that fights all the big forest fires you see on TV.  Plus, when he is not working, he averages about 150-200 miles, per week, cycling!  Needless to say, he feels pretty dang good.

However, if the patient had an autoimmune condition to begin with, they body will now start attacking other regions of the body.  The thyroid is gone, the immune system can’t attack it anymore, so it will go “looking” for other tissue to target.

Nodules!!!

Many patients are told they have nodules, which should be biopsied.  Do I agree with the biopsy every time?  Not every time.  Why?  Due to the fact that a majority of thyroid patients have Hashimoto’s Disease, the leading cause of nodules.  If the thyroid antibodies are positive, and there are not any red flags for cancer, I don’t encourage a biopsy.  The Hashimoto’s Disease is the culprit in this case!

Let’s discuss what nodules are, and then you can decide if you should have the nodule(s) biopsied. 

Many times, thyroid nodules begin growing as a protective mechanism by the body to prevent the thyroid gland from being destroyed!  Yep, you read that correctly.  Nodules, a majority of the time (there are instances where they are cancerous, more about that in a minute) are your body’s response to an ATTACK!

Your body is trying to preserve its thyroid, and it does so by growing shields on the tissue to prevent destruction from infections and autoimmune attacks.  Does this mean, if your infection gets eradicated or your autoimmune condition gets under control, nodules will stop growing?  In a lot of instances, yes. 

(My mother’s doctor discovered nodules on her thyroid during a full body scan, the kind that can “find disease”, and the doctor told her she had cancer and needed to see an oncologist.  Needless to say, my mother was distraught when she phoned me.  After helping to calm her down, I ordered some blood work, AND…she was perfectly fine.  The nodules were from an old infection, not cancer!  Thanks doctors for freaking my family out!)

I tell patients that a “win” in my book is if the nodule does not grow any larger in size.  This means, the body sees no reason to keep growing a larger shield, because the attacks have halted.  Hooray!!! 

I have seen nodules shrink, and even, completely, disappear!  This doesn’t happen with every patient, and I never tell a patient I am going to shrink their nodule.

I use a liposomal glutathione/super oxide dismutase cream to help accomplish the goal of shrinking the nodule.  Again, this doesn’t happen on every patient, but I have seen a few hundred patients respond remarkably well with this product.

I Have Difficulty Swallowing/Breathing

Now, we need to consider what is really happening in a patient like this.  If we know the patient has Hashimoto’s Disease, I always recommend getting it under control, first.

If there are any infections, then those need to be eradicated, as well. 

I will do everything I can to get inflammation down within the first 2-weeks of working with a patient that is having difficulties swallowing/breathing.  If there are not any positive changes within 2-weeks, I refer this patient to their endocrinologist for surgical intervention.

Sometimes, surgery is needed!

Why did I not refer them out, right away?  If we can save this type of patient from having an unneeded surgery, that is the goal.  Surgery, should always be the last resort, in my eyes (I have had 35 major broken bones and 11 surgeries…I understand the pros and cons of surgery, well).

I Have Hashimoto’s Disease!

No, no, no, no, no!!!  I do NOT recommend having your thyroid gland removed because you have Hashimoto’s Disease.  You should understand the mechanism of nodules now (read above if you are still unclear).  If you understand what causes them, you can focus on how to get them to stop growing, or even decrease in size.

I am a firm believer that you figure out what is driving the autoimmune condition, and then the side effects of the condition will go shrink, go away, or not grow in the first place. 

Take Action!

If this information resonates with you, make sure to schedule your complimentary phone consultation by calling my staff (866) 375-4641.  You may also email me any questions: drking@askdrking.com

FREE DOWNLOAD BELOW: GREAT RECIPES FOR THOSE WITH THYROID DISEASE

Stress Can Kill You!

Did you know that stress can kill us, literally?  Well, maybe I am taking that a bit far, but stress causes inflammation to increase inside of the body, and that inflammation affects the gut lining, brain tissue, arteries, the heart, muscles and joints.

Now, let me re-word what I said.  Stress can be the trigger for what causes our bodies to begin breaking down, prematurely.  What does that mean?  Eventually, the body can have a heart attack, develop a chronic health condition (autoimmune disease), or develop cancer.

That Dang Stress

One thing almost all patients tell me is this, “Dr. King, I have had a very stressful life!” It doesn’t matter if you have Hashimoto’s Disease, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, or just feel worn out…stress will make these health conditions worse.

We can’t avoid stress, that would be impossible.  So, what do we do?

You need to eliminate any physiological stressors that could be causing your stress glands, the adrenals, to overwork. 

Like what, Dr. King?

Here is a short list of what triggers I look for that drive the adrenal glands to kick out more inflammatory hormones:

• Blood sugar fluctuations
• Infections
• Lack of sleep
• Dehydration
• Food sensitivities
• Autoimmune conditions

If those are occurring, the body will not heal, AND…your body will be under more stress causing more inflammatory hormones to be released. 

How Do You Know How Well the Adrenals Are Working?

There can be a few ways of knowing if the adrenals are not working properly:

• Adrenal Stress Index test – this test measures your cortisol levels and maps them out throughout the day
• Basic blood tests
• Simple questions on intake forms

Also, if you can’t stay asleep, it is a good bet that the adrenal glands are not working properly throughout the day. 

Check this out…

Have you, or someone you known, complained of getting up in the middle of the night to urinate? 

Do you think that is normal?  Not at all (unless you have a majorly inflamed prostate gland).  So, why does this happen and what does urinating have to do with the adrenal glands?

During the day, if the adrenal glands are always pumping out cortisol, then at night the “proper levels” of cortisol can’t be secreted.  This makes the body revert to the backup hormones, with adrenaline being one of those hormones.

Now, imagine you are on a safari, in Africa (pretty cool, eh).  And you are lounging around your tent and all of a sudden, a HUGE, ferocious lion approaches you.

What does your body do?  The heart starts to pump more blood to help the muscles get ready to run away, you get that “feeling” in the pit of your stomach (adrenaline), and you may have the urge to urinate.  Why urinate?  Because your body will do anything it can to get you the heck out there, and it doesn’t need the urine in your bladder to run.  So, it will want to get rid of it.

Adrenaline at Night

If you get a spike of adrenaline at night, similar physiological functions kick in:

• Nervous system gets activated (like when the lion approached) – you wake up
• Your heart can be racing – patients tell me that sometimes they feel as if their heart is pounding and that is why they are waking up
• You will need to urinate

Long way to prove a point, but…hopefully, you now know that if you wake up to urinate at night, the adrenal glands need to be looked at.

Gaining Weight

A lot of people know that if the adrenal glands are not working well, they gain weight. 

Cortisol = Weight Gain

This can be an accumulation of adipose tissue (fat) or water weight.  Either way, when people are under more stress, you typically see weight gain (I assuming that over-eating is not a problem).

80% of the Immune System

Ok, what does urinating at night and gaining weight have to do with breaking down the body?

I am glad you asked!!!

High amounts of cortisol will eat away at the gastrointestinal lining, causing Leaky Gut Syndrome (LGS). A healthy GI system is EXTREMELY important for a healthy immune system (the GI tract makes up for 80% of the immune system).

If your GI lining is breaking down, then the immune system becomes weaker and weaker.

On top of that, now the LGS is causing major inflammation in the blood, and the heart has to pump this “bad” blood (breaking the heart tissue down, along with the arteries).

Not the Brain!

We, also, know cortisol in excessive amounts will pass your blood brain barrier. You have a barrier that surrounds the brain protecting it from large foreign particles. Alcohol, medications, and hormones are some of the chemicals that will pass the blood brain barrier.

You know what happens when alcohol passes the barrier! When cortisol passes the barrier, it destroys neurons! Specifically, it targets the hippocampus, which when destroyed will cause dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (I watched my grandfather struggle with this the last five years of his life due in part to Type II Diabetes).

Now, you have the heart, arteries, gut lining, and brain, all breaking down!  On top of that, you may be gaining weight, have horrible GI symptoms, brain fog, and your hormones are thrown off.

All because of stress and your body’s ability to handle it (or, not handle it).

If you are having some of those symptoms, reach out to me, and let’s get you healthy!  You can click this LINK, to schedule a complimentary, 15-minute phone conversation.

DOWNLOAD THE 67-MARKERS YOUR DOCTOR MUST RUN

If, Dr. Axe, Says Healing Leaky Gut Syndrome Is True, It Must Be True!

(Laughing hysterically)

Just last week, a spoke to a future patient that told me, “Dr. King, I listened to Dr. Axe talking about healing Leaky Gut Syndrome (LGS) for Hashimoto’s Disease, and I never believed you about the gut needing healing until I listened to him!”

I am not sure how long Dr. Axe has been around, but recently his marketing has taken him to another level (which is great, as more people are going to get helped), but I have been preaching to patients for almost 10-years about healing the gut.

Your Gut = Your Immune System

80% of your immune system is dependent upon a healthy functioning gut.  Once the gut lining breaks down, all HECK can break lose, and most of the time this leads to an autoimmune condition, such as Hashimoto’s Disease, turning on.  Think about this for a moment, if you have an autoimmune condition, your gut lining has been compromised.  Don’t you think it would be important to heal the Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Why would Leaky Gut Syndrome Begin?

1. Food allergens: this is one of the most common reasons why people’s gut lining breaks down, causing Leaky Gut Syndrome/Intestinal Permeability. Gluten, Dairy and Soy, are all inflammatory foods that begin to destroy the gut lining.  Do you think you can handle some eye-popping food information?  Watch What the Health! and What’s With Wheat!
2. Excess cortisol: many people have heard of cortisol before because it stores belly fat. Did you know that too much cortisol causes inflammation, affecting your gut lining, along with causing BRAIN FOG!  That is right, your brain fog could be caused by too much cortisol, that has caused Leaky Gut Syndrome.
   
3. Medications: yes, antibiotics will destroy the good gut flora.  I recently received an email from a potential patient that had been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, for a straight 10-months!
4. Pregnancy: did you know that during your third trimester, your immune system switches dominance (TH1 to Th2 and vice versa)? What this means to you is that sometimes you will develop an autoimmune disease due to pregnancy.
5. Adrenal gland stress: the adrenal glands release cortisol, normally, to help stabilize your glucose levels throughout the day/night. Your adrenal glands are also your STRESS GLANDS!  Emotional stress, such as moving, changing/losing your job, divorce/death in the family are some of the biggest emotional stressors we will ever experience.

         Most of the time, we get hit by multiple stressors at once, and we have seen after these stressors, an autoimmune condition turns on.

         This is exactly what happened to my better-half, Natasha, recently.  Her mother has Hashimoto’s Disease, along with her sister, but for the last 6-years Natasha’s                antibodies have been negative.

         Well, along with us moving to Texas, the black mold in our home in California, and a number of other “speed bumps” we have encountered since our move,                          Natasha’s antibodies turned positive = Hashimoto’s Disease.

How Do You Heal Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Many people and gurus are now creating their own LGS healing products.  I am sure they are great, but my favorite Leaky Gut healing product is from Apex Energetics, called Repairvite.  Why?  Research!  I have seen the research behind all of their formulations and know the quality control those products go through, and even the formulators of the products.

Now, no two patients are the same, and there are different variations of gut dysfunction and gut repairing products.

If you have ever been diagnosed with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) then taking “regular” Repairvite would make you worse!  There are certain properties in Repairvite that can cause more irritation and inflammation.  This is why working with a doctor that understands the ends and outs of Leaky Gut healing is beneficial. 

Yes, some people will be helped by the products they are buying online, but the patients who have been suffering for years, bouncing back and forth between doctor after doctor, needs someone who can walk them through the steps of healing the GI-lining, without causing more aggravation. 

90-120 Days!

Normally, healing the GI-lining takes 90-120 days!  That is ONLY 3-4 months!  It took me almost 2-years to do the same thing.  Why?  When I discovered I had Leaky Gut Syndrome/Intestinal Permeability (LGS/IP), not many people knew about it or understood how to heal it. 

I made it my mission to figure out how to heal my gut!  I did, but…it took right at 2-years to do.  Now, I have it down to roughly 90-120 days.  Pretty cool, huh?

Infections

Yes, infections can cause Leaky Gut Syndrome.  I like to call them, “critters”!  If you have critters, they will eat away at your gut lining, creating inflammation, causing LGS/IP.  The critters must go!

Quick story, a patient emailed me last week and told me “I have TAPEWORMS”!!!  Needless to say, she was freaking out a little bit.  I sent her some of my favorite critter killers and today she emailed me saying “there is a massacre” going on inside of her body!  LOL  

She was being a little funny and animated, but what she was trying to explain was the critter killers doing their job = killing off the bad guys (not the good guys, which is important to know).

Lots of times, parasitic infections are a big deal.  Parasites like to feed on yeast.  So, adopting a low sugar diet, along with killing off the food for the critters is essential.

OMG…I don’t Want Critters!

How can you know if you have them or not?  Through specialized testing, which I run on every single patient.  Easy Peasy!

If they are there, we will kill them off, re-check the labs and make sure they are gone, and keep healing the GI-lining. 

Let’s Recap

In summary, to begin healing the gut lining, you want to look at stressors:

• blood sugar
• emotional/chemical/physical stressors
• past history of lifestyle
• infections
• food allergens

Then, you want to focus on staying away from any triggers that create this inflammation.

Next, you want to begin patching up the gut lining!  Make sure you are getting products from someone that knows specifics about YOUR health condition.  Guessing about which products to use based an online video can be dangerous and delay your healing. 

To get help with all of this, call me: (866) Drking-1.  Let’s get you back to being, YOU!

Signs of Hashimoto’s Disease

Have you been diagnosed with a thyroid condition but feel that some piece of this still missing?

After years of working with thyroid gland patients, I know that a thyroid condition involves more than just your thyroid gland. Many doctors only look at the thyroid when diagnosing the condition, but I know that the thyroid does not work in a vacuum; as with other conditions, our body needs several parts working together well to function optimally.

Your adrenal glands sit right on top of your kidneys, and they are also known as your “stress glands”, as they respond to physical, chemical and emotional stress. They release hormones to your hypothalamus (located in the center of your brain) and pituitary gland (located below the hypothalamus).

Your pituitary releases thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) to act onto your thyroid to work so your thyroid will release T3 (triiodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine), therefore increasing their levels in the blood. If your adrenals are not working properly—which could be due to triggers such as stress from a bad relationship, a high-pressure job, blood sugar imbalances (diabetes) or even having taken prescription drugs over a prolonged period of time—they aren’t feeding back into your pituitary gland properly. Without the stimulation from the adrenals, the pituitary can’t release TSH like it should, and the cycle continues without balancing.

Your pituitary gland can also suffer from dysfunction as well. For instance, high cortisol, which is released from your adrenal glands, will make your pituitary gland sluggish, as can oral contraceptives.

There’s also an autoimmune component as well, mostly known as Hashimoto’s Disease. Hashimoto’s (as most people call it) is an autoimmune condition attacking your thyroid gland. Did you know that 90% of hypothyroid patients are misdiagnosed and are actually suffering from Hashimoto’s? In this scenario, you thyroid gland is an innocent bystander. It s being attacked by you own body’s immune system. Of course it won’t work properly when this is occurring, and there is not a medicine out there to calm down the autoimmune attack (without shutting your immune system down).

I haven’t even discussed food triggers that can create inflammation and affect all of your body’s organ systems, even destroying the brain. For now, let’s say it’s safe to say that certain foods will make Hashimoto’s Disease, worse!

All of these different scenarios need to be taken into consideration when looking at a person’s thyroid condition. If your doctors are not analyzing how your adrenal glands and pituitary gland are working, then they are missing a huge piece of the puzzle in regards to managing your health care needs. If your doctor hasn’t run the thyroid antibodies, to rule in or rule out Hashimoto’s Disease, they are missing huge piece of the puzzle.

How do we find the missing pieces in your puzzle? Through specialized testing. If you don’t look at every aspect of a patient’s health, I guarantee you that something will be over looked. This is why many thyroid patients consult with me in order to regain their health. If you feel that some pieces of the puzzle may be missing in order to reach your health goals, call my staff to schedule your consultation: (714) 731-7680.

Are you still struggling with hypothyroid symptoms even though are taking your medications?

Did you know that 90% of hypothyroid patients are still struggling with thyroid symptoms, even though they are taking their medication? The reason many hypothyroid (low thyroid) patients are still battling with their fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, and brain fog is because they were misdiagnosed to begin with. These patients are actually suffering with Hashimoto’s Disease. And here is the secret; medication may not help the Hashimoto’s patient feel better…because the medication doesn’t do anything to fix the problem. What is the problem?

Hashimoto’s Disease will cause hypothyroid symptoms!

Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune condition that is attacking the thyroid gland. Not many doctors are running patients’ thyroid antibodies to screen for this autoimmune condition. Instead, Hashimoto’s patients are still having brain fog, memory loss, depression, cold hands and feet, not to mention the fatigue that goes along with these life-debilitating symptoms.

When your thyroid gland is under functioning, it can’t produce hormone properly. The bad news is that every single cell of your body relies upon that thyroid hormone. The brain is extremely reliant upon a functioning thyroid gland, when the gland is not work…patients begin to have quicker neurological degeneration (i.e. Dementia, Alzheimer’s and/or Parkinson’s Disease).

In order to control Hashimoto’s Disease, you must first figure out what is driving the autoimmune attack to begin with. Here is a short, but not comprehensive, list of some of the triggers that drive Hashimoto’s:

• Is Leaky Gut Syndrome occurring? This is when the gut lining is inflamed and not absorbing vitamins and minerals very well.
• Does this patient have any hidden infections? Doctors miss infections a lot (parasitic and bacterial infections are some of the most common).
• Does the patient have any food sensitivities? Many times, patients are eating foods that make their body attack the thyroid gland (gluten, dairy and soy are the BIG three)?
• How is the patient’s blood sugar? Is it stabilized throughout the day? Is the patient a diabetic? Does the patient suffer from hypoglycemia?
• Is the liver working well? The liver plays a critical role in thyroid hormone conversion, along with getting inflammation down.

How to manage Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism?

When one has an autoimmune condition, it will never go away! However, you can still live a wonderful life as long as you are managing your condition properly.

Once I help patients figure out the triggers driving the autoimmune condition, a multi-faceted approach is needed to keep the immune system from attacking the thyroid gland. I teach patients how to clean up their eating (I hate the word diet; what are the first three letters of the word?), along with guiding them through the healing process utilizing homeopathies and supplementation.

Helping the body heal is rarely a quick fix, instead healing takes time and effort on a patient’s part. My job is to teach and educate, guiding patients through the process.

These are just a few of the basics of autoimmune management for Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. If you feel this may be an approach that you need, contact my staff to schedule your consultation: (866) 375-4641.

We manage our patients both neurologically and metabolically. Let’s think about the car analogy of your blood being you oil, and your brain being your motor…if your oil is bad long enough, your motor will start to break down!

All chronic health conditions will ultimately affect how our brain functions. What do I mean by this? All of us have some amount of neurological degeneration, some of us have more, and some of us are progressively developing more and more degeneration over a shorter amount of time.

Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease are three conditions we can think of right off of the bat that involve brain degeneration. You can read more about why I began working with patients with chronic health conditions by…

Why I started Working With Chronic Health Conditions…

We use functional neurology and nutrition to help restore the body’s natural functions.Neuroplasticity is the term used for stimulating the brain to improve the efficiency of the brain’s neurons. Dictionary.com defines neuroplascticity as the following: the brain’s natural ability to form new connections in order to compensate for injury or changes in one’s environment; also called brain plasticity.

If the brain is starting to break down neurologically, neurons are starting to die off; you can stimulate the area of the brain with damage and improve the efficiency!

We use the following therapies to improve the brain’s efficiency:

Balance therapy
Spin therapy
Vibration therapy
Auditory stimulation (sound therapy)
Visual stimulation (eye movements)
Olfactory stimulation (smell therapy)
The Rebuilder®
Calorics
Eyelights Therapy
Interactive Metronome® (great for children with dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders)
Oxygen Therapy
Sensory Deprivation Tanks (AKA – float tanks): www.floatspot.com. ‘Floating’ is an excellent passive therapy to help your body heal quicker. What is floating? You are in a sealed tank, floating in 10″ of heated water (heated to body temperature) that contains 600-800 pounds of dissolved Epsom and Sea Salt. Floating allows your brain to ‘relax’ in theta state, which is a healing state for the brain and body. While floating is a type of trans-meditation, one hour floating is the equivalent to 4-5 hours of sleep = allows the adrenal glands to heal. Plus, your body is in a weightless state, allowing your muscles and joints to relax.

We use oxygen therapy to help our patients’ bodies heal quicker. The body needs two things to improve brain function: fuel and activation.

Fuel comes in the form of glucose (foods we eat) and oxygen.

Activation comes in the form of brain stimulation.

Now onto our oil, or our blood!

Remember, all chronic health conditions affect our brains neurologically!

If we have any organs malfunctioning or any chronic diseases, we must correct the issue. Let us take thyroid gland disorders. In order to accurately determine what type of thyroid gland disorder one has, you must run all of the right testing. This is where the medical model is “dropping the ball”. If they are not running all of the right tests (ordering the right markers), or if their blood panels are not complete (which almost 90% of the time, they are not, according to what we see in our clinic), you will not be diagnosed properly.

This holds true for all of our chronic health conditions. Doctors must be running adequate tests in order to truly diagnose the health conditions correctly. Why are the medical doctors not doing this? It will not change the course of their treatments, which is either medications or surgery.

Our Natural Programs Are Based on Specific Lab Panels:

By using specific blood tests such as:

#1: A thyroid panel (with TBG and TPO-ab antibodies)
#2: A complete metabolic panel (CMP)
#3: A lipid panel
#4: A CBC (complete blood chemistry with differential)

We can assess your thyroid, adrenal, blood, and gut function. All can be affected with chronic health conditions. By addressing any problems with your thyroid, adrenal glands, blood chemistry, or gut function, we can help you to heal faster. The CMP allows us to check your blood glucose levels since glucose and oxygen are needed by the brain to function properly.

Adrenal Stress Index (ASI):

We can further test your adrenal glands with a test called an Adrenal Stress Index. Your adrenal glands are your “stress” organs meaning that they react to stress. If you have been or are currently under stress, this test is a must! IF YOU SUFFER FROM INSOMNIA, THIS TEST WILL MEASURE YOUR CORTISOL LEVELS. When your body’s cortisol levels are abnormal, you will suffer from insomnia. Cortisol levels can be corrected via specific nutritional protocols thereby curing your insomnia.

We may test to see if you have an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease is where your immune system attacks a particular area of the body so we test for specific antibodies to determine if you suffer from an autoimmune condition.

TISSUE ANTIBODIES (aka. Autoimmune Disorders)

If you suffer from an autoimmune disorder your immune system is attacking other systems of your body (ie. Thyroid, cerebellum, etc.)

If you have an autoimmune attack, it is like a raging forest fire. Your body is destroying tissue as the attack occurs, damaging critical organs.

You must find out what the gasoline is that is being poured onto your fire, or you will keep destroying tissue.

This is what makes us unique: no stone is left unturned to determine the true cause of your health condition.

There can be many different forms of “gasoline”, so you must run the correct tests.

We can check for gluten antibodies, tissue antibodies such as myelin (fatty sheath around the nerves) antibodies, and cerebellar (back part of the brain controlling balance, coordinated movement, and spinal muscles) antibodies.

For Example: Many HhYpatients that I have managed have tested positive for thyroid antibodies and they were actually mis-diagnosed by their medical doctor for years. If your thyroid tissue anti-bodies (TPO &TBG) are high, you are suffering from Hashimoto’s disease and NOT hypothyroid. The only way to find out is to test for thyroid tissue antibodies via blood work.

Your immune system could be attacking your nervous system, which would cause pain and numbness (this is called multiple sclerosis and peripheral neuropathy). The ONLY way to know is to run the right tests.

If you suffer from tissue antibodies, further blood work will be needed to determine which part of your immune system is not functioning. Specifically…

#1: Lymphocyte Subpopulation
#2: TH1/TH2 Cytokine Panels
#3: Natural Killer Cell Activity

H. Pylori/Parasites:

We run tests for H. Pylori bacteria to determine any problems related to gut function (H. Pylori is the most common bacteria to affect the stomach and gut). We are also looking for parasites, mold, yeast and fungi, which is what a majority of patients with gastro-intestinal dysfunction suffer from.

Genetic Food Sensitivity Testing:

Genetic samples can be used to determine sensitivity to foods that might be making your health condition worse. If you are eating certain foods that your body is sensitive to, you are destroying more and more tissue.

Intestinal Permeability:

We use this test to determine if a patient is suffering from leaky gut syndrome (LGS). We see a lot of patients with gastro-intestinal issues, and a majority of them are suffering from LGS.

LGS describes a condition of altered or damaged bowel lining, caused by antibiotics, toxins, poor diet, parasites, or infection can lead to increased permeability of the gut wall to toxins, microbes, undigested food, waste or larger than normal macromolecules. It has been proposed that these substances affect the body directly, while others postulate an immune reaction to these substances.

Neurotransmitters:

We assess for decreased brain neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are vital for proper brain function and can cause increased pain, memory loss, and neurological movement disorders.

Hormone Panels:

We can check hormone panels to determine if the patient suffers from low testosterone in males or low estrogen/progesterone levels in females. Symptoms related to decreased hormone levels may include depression, fatigue, mental fogginess, mood swings, hot flashes, sweating attacks, weight gain, and decreased physical stamina.

Inflammation:

Finally, we may need to test for inflammation in your system by testing homocysteine levels, fibrinogen and C-Reactive Protein (C-RP). Many patients suffering from chronic health conditions suffer from inflammatory processes. Just about every diabetic, thyroid, dizziness/vertigo, and autoimmune patient that I have managed suffers from some form of chronic inflammatory process.

Once we have run the necessary tests to determine your specific condition, we can successfully manage you using our proper neurological and all natural nutritional protocols.

One thing you MUST realize…your doctors have been managing your condition from a reactive approach. Meaning, they wait until something is wrong, or destroyed, to then give you a medication or treatment. We work from a pro-active approach! If you have one severe condition, there is a good chance other bodily systems are suffering as well. One organ does not stop working on its own; our body works as ONE BIG organ!!!

If you have one auto-immune condition, time and lifestyle are the determining factors for developing more auto-immune conditions.

If you have high cholesterol, it is only a matter of time until you have atherosclerosis of the arteries, high blood pressure, tissue destruction, peripheral neuropathy, heart attacks or a stroke!

The big question is this…How do you want to live out the remaining years you have left?

If you would like to talk more about your health condition, give my staff a call (866) 375-4641 to schedule your complimentary phone consultation.

At Dr King’s office, our mission is to improve the quality of our patients’ lives. We operate by a simple motto, ‘We want success stories’! Our goal is take you from the condition that you are in and take you to where you want to be. You have goals for your life; whether they are financial, personal, or spiritual goals. Our job is to improve upon your “health goals”. We believe that everyone should be living a healthy, vibrant, and energetic life, without the needless suffering of chronic, debilitating health symptoms.

Functional neurology and functional medicine is the new wave of health care. People are realizing why the medical model is failing them. Our medical model is using ‘acute care’ for ‘chronic conditions’ and patients are starting to see that those two conflicting models are not allowing them to reach their health goals = be happy, vibrant, and thriving individuals.

Our approach is simple, but comprehensive:

We look at how the body is functioning neurologically and metabolically. The brain is a magnificent organ! It contains billions of neurons that are firing constantly to keep us thinking, moving, and living. If neurons are compromised, so will our bodily functions. Our blood is the ‘oil of the car’, if you will. It contains all of the nutrients and oxygen needed for our brain to function. Without the proper nutrients and oxygen, we die!

Using neurological testing, we can specifically test the functioning and non-functioning aspects of the brain. Once we find the region that is not “firing”, or working, appropriately we can stimulate that region to improve its functioning ability. It is much like going into the gym. If you have a weak biceps muscle, what are you going to do? You will work it out, do some strength training! You would not work out your leg if your arm is weak, would you? No! This is the same principle with neurology. You can stimulate or strengthen the regions of the brain that are weak. Once you do that, you will improve the functioning of that area’s neurons and your body works and performs as it is supposed to.

This stimulation is based off of the term, neuroplasticity. Scientists once thought that a brain older than three years old was a rigid structure. If it was damaged in any way, it was damaged. However, through scientific studies and research, plus clinical applications, we know that the brain continually reorganizes itself. This regorganization is called neuroplasticity. It means that you create your brain from the input you give it.

Functional medicine is based off the idea that the body functions best within certain parameters, or ranges. In order to be within those ranges, the body needs a few things:

Nutrients Oxygen
If our organs have the proper fuel, everything will be in balance. However, due to life (stress, diet, environmental toxins, genes, trauma, etc) our body will become ‘out of balance’ and we might need helping getting back into those functional ranges. Quite simply, our body starts to shut down and we can bring it back into a more normalized state using natural supplementation, which is guided by scientific laboratory testing. If you run the appropriate laboratory testing to figure out why the body is not working within a functional, or optimal, range, you can then use ‘functional medicine’ to bring it back into range.

Neurological therapies are based off the specific neurological tests that are performed. Some of therapies that are used are the following:

Oxygen Therapy: The brain uses more oxygen than any other organ in the body. So, we use oxygen therapy in order to allow your body and brain to heal quicker.

Vibration Therapy: Vibration fires to the back part of the brain called the cerebellum, which is the foundation. One of the functions of the cerebellum is control of the spinal muscle and by stimulating these muscles we can fire-off muscle spindle cells to activate the cerebellum, thus increasing its efficiency in functioning.

Auditory Therapy: Auditory stimulation fires to the temporal lobe. The temporal lobe is responsible hearing, memory, recall and verbalization of thoughts. By activating this region, we can improve its function.

Visual Therapy: Visual stimulation is picked up by the cerebellum. Since the cerebellum controls eye movements, we can stimulate the cerebellum via visual therapy. To learn more visit www.eyelights.com

Auriculo-therapy: Using a hand-held muscle stimulation machine, we can strengthen the brainstem, which controls many of your automatic processes of your body…breathing, sleep, digestion, and pain.

Caloric Therapy: By using a warm water caloric, we can stimulate the cerebellum as well. This works wonders for dizziness and vertigo patients.

Interactive Metronome: By using science based software, we are able to measure your brain’s ability to time sequences to assess how efficient your cerebral cortex is working. We can also use therapeutic modalities with the Interactive Metronome to improve the efficiency of the brain. To learn more visit www.interactivemetronome.com

Balance Therapy: The cerebellum controls balance, and is the foundation of the brain. If the cerebellum is not firing properly (sending the right neurological impulses to the rest of the brain) the rest of the brain’s efficiency will be compromised. Using balance therapy we can improve the efficiency of how the brain is functioning.

Rebuilder®: Using this machine we are able to regenerate the nerves that have been destroyed due to peripheral neuropathy in diabetics. To learn more visit www.rebuildermedical.com

If you are looking for a complete systems approach to your health condition, you have found the best clinic to do so. There will be ‘no stone left unturned’ when it comes to diagnosing your condition and managing your condition.

If you would like to talk more about your health condition, give my staff a call (866) 375-4641 to schedule your complimentary phone consultation.

If you have diabetes, whether it’s type 1 or type 2, your doctor likely recommended a diet endorsed by the American Diabetes Association. But did you know the diabetic diet recommends foods that could be slowly worsening your diabetes condition?

Turns out there is more to a diabetic diet than grams of carbs and sugar, although those are vitally important.

For people with type 1 diabetes and for an estimated 20 percent of people with type 2 diabetes, diabetes is an autoimmune disease.

This means the immune system is attacking and destroying the parts of the pancreas involved in insulin production and regulation. Over time destruction is severe enough the body can no longer adequately regulate blood sugar.

Certain foods on the diabetic diet, such as gluten and dairy, have been shown to both trigger autoimmunity and make it worse.

Many type 2 diabetics have autoimmune diabetes

People with type 1 diabetes, which begins in childhood, understand diabetes is an autoimmune condition.

However, many people with type 2 diabetes can go for years without knowing there is an autoimmune component to their diabetes, which generally sets in during adulthood.

This type of diabetes is called type 1.5 diabetes, latent autoimmune diabetes of adults (LADA), or even double diabetes.

Type 1.5 diabetes involves the lifestyle components of being overweight or obese and eating a diet that promotes high blood sugar, along with the autoimmune component that slowly destroys the insulin-producing abilities of the pancreas.

Where the diabetic diet fails

Although grams of carbs and sugars are vital considerations for people with all types of diabetes, what is overlooked is the immune reactivity of foods.

Research shows a link between certain foods and the triggering or exacerbating of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 and type 1.5 diabetes.

If you have an immune reaction to certain foods and consume them daily, they are going to keep the immune system in a constant state of inflammation and attacking body tissue. This makes blood sugar continually difficult to manage, despite careful consumptions of carbs and sugars.

Foods to avoid with autoimmune diabetes

The two top foods to avoid if you have autoimmune diabetes are gluten and dairy. Both have been linked to a number of autoimmune diseases, including diabetes.

Gluten has been shown to trigger an autoimmune attack against the GAD enzyme which plays a role in insulin regulation and brain function. Casein, the protein in dairy products, has also been linked with autoimmune diabetes.

If you have a sensitivity to these foods or other common immune reactive foods, it is worth getting tested or doing an elimination diet Knowing which foods are provoking an autoimmune attack can help you better manage your type 1 or type 1.5 diabetes.

Ask my office for more advice on ways to tame inflammation and manage your autoimmune diabetes. If you have type 2 diabetes, it’s important to rule out autoimmunity.

Are you often wide awake around 3 or 4 a.m., your mind racing with anxiety, but then collapsing into a near coma in the late afternoon? This maddening cycle of waking up and falling asleep at inconvenient hours is often relieved by managing low blood sugar.

Why you’re wide awake at 3 or 4 a.m.

Although sleep is a time for the body to rest, your brain is still busy working on repair and regeneration, transforming the day’s impressions into lasting memories, and keeping you entertained with dreams.

The brain demands more fuel than any other organ, about 20 percent of the body’s total supply. These needs don’t abate during sleep, when your body is fasting.

In the absence of food, the body keeps the brain going by gradually raising the adrenal hormone cortisol, which triggers the production of glucose to feed the brain through the night.

At least in theory.

Chronic low blood sugar breaks this system down because it skews cortisol rhythms and release. When your brain starts to run low on fuel during the night, cortisol may lag in triggering glucose release.

The brain cannot wait until breakfast and perceives this lack of fuel supply as an emergency. As a result, the body releases more urgent “fight-or-flight” adrenal hormones, which raise blood sugar back to safe levels.

Unfortunately, these adrenals hormones are also designed to help you either flee from danger or fight it. This does not bode well for a sound night’s sleep and explains why if you wake up at 3 or 4 a.m., it’s usually with a mind racing with worry.

Meanwhile, 12 hours later when you could really use the energy to finish a work project or deal with after-school duties, you crash and can barely function thanks to blood sugar and cortisol levels bottoming out. Reaching for that shot of caffeine may pull you through, but in the long run it’s only compounding the problem.

How to fall asleep if you wake up at 3 a.m.

If you wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. with a racing mind, eating a little something may feed your brain and calm your mind so you can fall back asleep. But do not eat something sugary, which will spike blood sugar and perpetuate the cycle. Instead, eat some protein and fat.

Examples include nut butter, a little bit of meat, boiled egg, or a coconut snack. Have these prepared ahead of time and even next to your bed so you don’t have to go into the kitchen and turn on bright lights. You will not feel hungry because adrenal hormones are appetite suppressants, but you don’t need to eat much.

How to avoid the afternoon crash

To avoid the afternoon crash without caffeine you need to stabilize blood sugar as a way of life. Eat frequently enough to avoid sending blood sugar into a nose dive, and avoid foods that cause blood sugar to spike and crash: Sugar, caffeine, energy drinks, too many carbohydrates, and starchy carbs.

How do you know if you have low blood sugar?

Low blood sugar symptoms include:

Sugar cravings
Irritability, lightheadedness, dizziness, or brain fog if meals are missed
Lack of appetite or nausea in the morning (this is caused by stress hormones)
The need for caffeine for energy
Eating to relieve fatigue
A variety of nutritional compounds can further support your blood sugar handling and stress hormone functions so you sleep better. Ask us for advice.

We often think of good health in terms of blood pressure or cholesterol levels, but your libido is also an important indicator. If yours has gone missing, it could be a red flag that important underlying health issues need to be addressed.

People who turn to functional medicine for other health issues, such as low thyroid function, an autoimmune disorder, or depression, often report a boost in their libido thanks to their protocol.

Of course, it’s natural to expect low libido following a major stressor or during an unhealthy relationship, but if it’s chronically absent, investigate why.

Common causes of low libido

Below are some common causes of low libido that can be addressed through functional medicine:

Blood sugar imbalances. Many people eat more carbohydrates than their body can handle, they skip meals, or they consume too much caffeine. Eating habits that send blood sugar constantly soaring and crashing will eventually lead to fatigue, irritability, sleep problems, and depression. All of these make zoning out in front of Netflix more tantalizing than a roll in the hay.

Adrenal fatigue. Your adrenal glands secrete stress hormones to help you manage life’s daily ups and downs. Most people are so stressed out from not only their lifestyles, but also their diets, chronic inflammation, gut health problems, and other health issues that adrenal function is fried. This is one of the primary causes of hormonal imbalances in men and women, delivering a double whammy to libido.

Leaky gut. Leaky gut means inflammation has made the lining of the small intestine too porous, allowing undigested foods and other pathogens to escape into the sterile bloodstream. This causes inflammation throughout the body, which typically leads to pain, fatigue, depression and other unsexy symptoms.

Food intolerances. Can a gluten or dairy intolerance really cause low libido? Yep. When you constantly eat a food that triggers an immune reaction, you send your body into an inflammatory tailspin. How you react depends on your genetic makeup. Symptoms include flare ups of your autoimmune disease, skin rashes, gut problems, joint pain, depression, migraines, anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, and, you guessed it, no desire for sex. You can run a food panel from Cyrex Labs to figure out which foods rob you of vigor, or follow an autoimmune diet for at least a month before reintroducing foods.

Diminished brain function. They say the biggest sex organ is the brain and it’s true. Many people today suffer from a brain that is aging too fast, besieged by inflammation, not getting properly oxygenated, struggling from poor fuel supply, or suffering from poor activity of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. Although all of these issues can often be addressed with the functional medicine basics I just mentioned, various nutritional compounds can also help boost brain function and, as a result, libido.

These are just a few underlying causes of low libido. Sometimes, of course, it’s more complicated, especially if you are unhappy in your relationship, suffer from low self-esteem, or run yourself ragged putting others’ needs before your own.

However, don’t shrug off low libido as no big deal. You could be missing out not only on the health benefits of regular sex, but also on the opportunity to address an underlying health concern.

Those with high blood pressure and heart disease know to avoid salt, but researchers have learned salt comes with another risk — too much alters immune cells in a way that promotes autoimmune disease.

Examples of autoimmune disease include Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, lupus, and type 1 diabetes. Autoimmune disease rates have skyrocketed in recent years, affecting more people than heart disease and cancer combined.

Although salt is not in itself harmful, Americans are guilty of eating way too much salt, more than the human body was ever designed to process. Fast foods, junk foods, and snack foods are all heavily salted to increase palatability and mask their inherent poor quality.

Sadly, our extreme consumption of salt raises the risk of the body’s immune system attacking itself and destroying viable tissue; this is what autoimmune disease is. For instance, in Hashimoto’s, the immune system attacks and destroys the thyroid gland. In type 1 diabetes, it is the pancreas that falls under attack. This gradual tissue destruction, along with the inflammation generated from the autoimmune attacks, causes a wide array of chronic and seemingly irresolvable symptoms.

The cells in the immune system responsible for this auto-destruction are called TH-17 cells. Researchers discovered that immune cells exposed to salt turned into TH-17 cells. Further experimentation showed mice fed a high-salt diet were more likely to develop a disease similar to multiple sclerosis.

A later study on human subjects showed just seven days on a high-salt diet put the immune system into inflammation overdrive, just as if it were encountering an infection or in the throes of an autoimmune attack. An interesting side note: The high-salt diet used in the study represented salt intake for the average American.

Increased TH-17 means increased inflammation in general. This not only raises the risk of autoimmune disease, but other inflammation-based diseases all too common today: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and disorders of the gut, skin, and respiratory system.

Should you stop eating salt?

Although researchers are quick to say removing salt is not going to cure an autoimmune disease, it’s important to pay attention to your salt intake if you are working to manage an autoimmune disease or other chronic inflammatory condition.

Researchers found lowering salt intake in human subjects produced beneficial, anti-inflammatory changes in the immune system.

The USDA daily recommended intake of sodium is 2300 mg, which is the equivalent of only one teaspoon of salt. Some argue we need even less than that and get plenty from produce and meats. Either way, the average American consumes twice the recommended amount, which research has shown causes inflammatory changes in the immune system.

Those who have low blood pressure may have been told to consume extra salt in order to raise blood pressure. Low blood pressure means tissues in the body, including the brain, are not getting sufficient oxygen, nutrients, and other compounds. In this case, trial and error may be necessary to see what works. Glycyrrhiza, a compound in licorice root, may also be effective in raising blood pressure.

New research has found a link between gut bacteria and anxiety — the diversity and quantity of your gut bacteria can affect your anxiety levels. Scientists believe this could play a role in treating PTSD, or post-traumatic stress syndrome.

In the study, researchers subjected mice to stressful conditions until they showed signs of anxiety and stress: shaking, diminished appetite, and reduced social interaction. Fecal samples showed the stressed mice had less diversity of gut bacteria than calmer mice who had not been subjected to stress.

When they fed the stressed mice the same live bacteria found in the guts of the calm mice, the stressed mice immediately began to calm down. Their stress levels continued to drop in the following weeks.

Brain scans also showed the improved gut flora produced changes in brain chemistry that promotes relaxation.

These biomarkers, according to researchers, can indicate whether someone is suffering from PTSD or is at a higher risk of developing it. Improving gut microflora diversity may play a role in treatment and prevention.

The role of healthy gut bacteria in the military

Because about 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffer from PTSD, the military is interested in the potential of influencing gut bacteria to manage and predict the risk of PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Enhancing gut microflora may also help submarine crews who go for long periods in confined spaces and with no daylight.

How to improve the health of your gut bacteria for anxiety, PTSD, depression, obesity, eating disorders

The quality and diversity of gut bacteria, or the “gut microbiome,” has been linked to not only anxiety, but also depression, obesity, eating disorders, autism, irritable bowel syndrome, and many other common disorders.

In other words, if you want to improve your health, you need to tend to your inner garden and make it richly diverse and bountiful. Although we’re still a ways off from a magic-bullet approach, there are many ways you can enrich the environment of your gut microbiome:

Cut out foods that kill good bacteria and promote harmful bacteria: Sugars, processed foods, processed carbohydrates, alcohol and energy drinks, fast foods, food additives, and other unhealthy staples of the standard American diet.

Eat tons of fiber-rich plants, which good bacteria love: All vegetables but especially artichokes, peas, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, as well as fruits. Either way, eat a large diversity of veggies on a regular basis instead of the same thing every day.

Use probiotics: Live, “friendly” bacteria that bolster your gut’s population of healthy microbes. Read the label to make sure they are high in live bacteria. Dietary fiber nourish these friendly probiotic bacteria. This combination of pre- and probiotic support is vital for healthy gut bacteria.

Eat fermented foods: Sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha, and yogurt contain live microbes, and can also help boost the probiotic content of your digestive tract. Not all fermented foods have live cultures so make sure to read the labels.

Protect your existing gut flora: Medications, age, health status, and stress influence your gut microbiome. Eating a fiber-strong, gut-friendly diet and supplementing with probiotics and fermented foods is one of your best strategies for supporting gut health, a healthy mood, and stress resiliency.

It’s an all-too-common scenario for teen girls today: That time of the month comes around they are home from school white-knuckling it through agonizing menstrual cramps, having only just endured a week of equally debilitating PMS depression and anxiety.

It’s just your standard entry into womanhood, right? Not!

Although hormonal irregularity is normal in the early years, excessive pain and anguish is not. It signals underlying causes of hormonal imbalance that may be alleviated through diet and lifestyle changes.

Of course one must also consider the possibility of serious medical disorders such as uterine fibroids, pelvic inflammatory disease, or, most commonly, endometriosis, disorders that tend to be overlooked in young girls in early menses.

Going beyond NSAIDS and the pill for teen cramps

The conventional approach to severe cramps and PMS is the use of over-the-counter pain medication and low-dose oral contraceptives.

Oral contraceptives are synthetic hormones that interfere with the body’s natural hormonal feedback loops and disrupt the balance of intestinal flora, not to mention raising the risk of serious medical complications such as migraines, stroke, and even cancer.

Although birth control pills can bring relief, it’s better to ask why hormones are imbalanced in the first place. Birth control pills merely resolve the symptoms but not the cause of teenage menstrual cramps and PMS.

Underlying causes of severe teen cramps and PMS

The female hormonal system is intricate, complex, and easily toppled by many modern habits we consider normal. Add standard teenage predilections for excess and indulgence, and you’ve got a recipe for monthly sick days home from school.

Here are some common factors we see when looking at teenage menstrual cramps and PMS with a functional medicine perspective:

Unstable blood sugar skewing hormones. This is very often an underlying factor of hormonal imbalance in women of all ages, but particularly in teens. Skipped meals, diets high in sugar, caffeine, processed carbohydrates, junk foods, and other staples of teen diets can cause the delicate balance between estrogen and progesterone to spiral out of control

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) frequently occurs when blood sugar is chronically out of balance, and brings with it the requisite symptoms of severe cramping and PMS. Other PCOS symptoms include depression, acne, irregular periods, and ovarian cysts (with pain).

A diet that eliminates sugar, minimizes caffeine, regulates carbohydrate consumption, and focuses on plenty of produce and healthy proteins and fats can help bring blood sugar, PCOS, and the accompanying cramps and PMS under control. Of course, this won’t be easy for the average teen girl, but sometimes the pain of the problem outweighs the pain of the solution.

Adrenal imbalances. The adrenal glands are two walnut-sized glands that sit atop each kidney and produce adrenal hormones. Teen habits of missing sleep, pushing themselves too hard, skipping meals, and eating too much sugar all send adrenal function into over drive or under drive.

Adrenal imbalances severely impact hormonal balance and can deplete progesterone, the “calming” hormone that helps prevent PMS.

Too much screen time. Hormonal balance is tightly linked to the light cycles of day and night. The blue light emitted from smart phones, tablets, and TVs are interpreted as sunlight by the brain. When teen girls stare into their phones texting and sharing late into the night, the brain, and then the hormones, become awfully confused as a result. (This also causes insomnia.)

Although restricting exposure to screens is a tall order for today’s teens, you may be able to convince your daughter to wear orange glasses use an orange film over the screen, or download an app like f.lux or Twilight that filters out blue light after sunset.

These are just a few ways in which modern teen habits can result in severe menstrual cramps and PMS. For more information on how to balance hormones and alleviate cramps and PMS using functional medicine, please contact my office.

You’d have to live under a rock to not recognize the popularity of gluten-free diets by now. But if you think going gluten-free is just another fad, think again. Although it may be a passing fad for some, a gluten-free diet is powerful medicine for most.

The benefits, which attain almost miraculous heights for some people, vary depending on the person.

A gluten sensitivity is not a one-size-fits-all disorder with requisite symptoms. Contrary to popular belief, it does not simply cause digestive complaints (although it does cause severe digestive distress for many).

Neurological symptoms common with gluten

In fact, one of the most common consequences of a gluten intolerance are symptoms that express themselves neurologically, and even these can vary.

The part of the brain most commonly affected by a gluten intolerance is the cerebellum, the area at the back of the brain that controls motor movements and balance. This can cause issues with balance, vertigo, nausea, car sickness and sea sickness, and getting dizzy or nauseous looking at fast-moving images or objects.

Also commonly affected are the protective coating of nerves called myelin. As damage to myelin progresses one can develop multiple-sclerosis type symptoms such as numbness, tingling or muscle weakness.

Other neurological symptoms associated with gluten include obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, anxiety, memory loss, brain fog, autism symptoms, and even more serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

How a person with a neurological response to gluten reacts depends on that person’s genetic makeup.

Other common symptoms caused by gluten

For others the reactions to gluten manifest elsewhere in the body. Some common symptoms include skin disorders (i.e., eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, dermatitis herpetiformis), joint pain, digestive problems, and poor thyroid function (Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism).

Why does gluten cause such diverse symptoms?

The symptoms of a gluten intolerance vary from person to person because of its effects on the immune system and brain.

Gluten is inflammatory and damaging to the gut in many people, causing leaky gut. The gut is the seat of the immune system, and also communicates intimately with the brain.

When the gut is constantly inflamed and becomes leaky (even though one might not have digestive symptoms), this increases overall inflammation in the body and the brain.

Increased inflammation not only gives rise to myriad disorders on its own, it also increases the risk of developing an autoimmune disorder. This is a disorder in which an imbalanced immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys tissue in the body, such as the brain, the thyroid, the pancreas, joint cartilage, and more.

Gluten and autoimmune disease

When it comes to autoimmune disease, no tissue in the body or brain is safe from an overzealous immune system deranged by constant inflammation. The rates of autoimmune diseases have exploded in recent years, and most are yet undiagnosed — meaning years of chronic and “mysterious” symptoms.

If you suffer from troubling and chronic symptoms, it is definitely worth considering an intolerance to gluten and other common trigger foods, such as dairy, eggs, soy, and different grains. Although giving up a favorite food is rarely easy, getting back your health is always wonderful.

Ask my office for more advice on how to manage a chronic health disorder and how to adjust your diet to support your health.

If you’ve been googling how to manage your chronic health condition, chances are you’re heard of leaky gut. Leaky gut is what it sounds like — the lining of the intestines have become “leaky,” allowing undigested foods, bacteria, and other undesirables into the sterile bloodstream.

This causes system-wide inflammation that becomes chronic health issues: autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, chronic pain, brain fog, food allergies and sensitivities, depression, eczema, asthma, and myriad other complaints.

It makes sense, then, that people want to heal leaky gut.

However, it’s best to know why you have leaky gut first. That way you’re not chasing down the wrong remedies.

Ten causes of leaky gut

Although we understand the role of leaky gut in chronic health disorders, the underlying causes of leaky gut itself can be harder to pin down.

Here are the causes we know about:

1. Many inflammatory foods damage the intestinal walls, leading to leaky gut. Gluten in particular is associated with leaky gut. Dairy, processed foods, excess sugar, and fast foods are other culprits.

2. Excess alcohol is another common cause of leaky gut.

3. Some medications cause leaky gut, including corticosteroids, antibiotics, antacids, and some medications for arthritis It’s important to note some drugs have inflammatory fillers such as gluten.

4. Certain infections, such H. pylori overgrowth (the bacteria that causes ulcers) or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) can cause leaky gut. Yeast, parasites, and viruses are other possibilities.

5. Chronic stress raises stress hormones, which damages the gut lining over time.

6. Hormone imbalances can cause leaky gut as the intestines depend on proper hormone levels for good function. Imbalances in estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormones, and stress hormones all contribute to leaky gut.

7. Autoimmune conditions can lead to leaky gut. We often think in terms of leaky gut causing autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriasis. However, sometimes it’s the other way around. The constant inflammation of autoimmune disease can make the gut leaky. Or autoimmunity in the digestive tract can sabotage gut health. In these cases, managing autoimmunity is a strategy to improve leaky gut.

8. Food processing changes the natural structure of foods in a way that makes them inflammatory to the gut. Examples include deamidating wheat to make it water soluble and the high-heat processing (glycation) of sugars. Additives such as gums (xanthan gum, carrageenan, etc.), food colorings, and artificial flavors are inflammatory for some people, too.

9. Our environment surrounds us with toxins, some of which have been shown to degrade the gut lining. Regularly taking glutathione, the body’s primary antioxidant, helps protect the body from toxins.

10. Sufficient vitamin D is vital to protecting the gut lining and a vitamin D deficiency can make the intestinal lining more vulnerable to damage.

These are some of the factors known to contribute to leaky gut. By understanding the cause of your leaky gut, you will have more success restoring health to your gut and managing your chronic health or autoimmune condition.

For more information on how to support leaky gut and autoimmune management, contact my office.

Do you suffer from brain fog? That muggy feeling your brain is operating in a puddle of mud and life is moving in slow motion. People think brain fog is funny or normal, but it’s not. It’s a red flag your brain is inflamed, functioning poorly, and likely degenerating too quickly.

What causes brain fog and why should you care? Consider these reasons:

1. Brain cells not communicating well with each other

Brain fog happens when brain cells, or neurons, don’t communicate well with each other. This causes brain function to slow down and diminish, giving you symptoms of brain fog.

Many factors cause neurons to fire sluggishly or not all with each other, which I’ll talk about more in this article.

When you have brain fog, you have to ask yourself, “Why are my neurons not able to fire effectively?”

2. Unstable blood sugar and brain fog

Blood sugar that swings too low or too high can cause brain fog. Symptoms of low blood sugar include irritability or lightheadedness between meals, cravings for sweets, waking up at 3 or 4 a.m., dependence on coffee or sugar for energy, becoming upset easily, and forgetfulness.

Symptoms of high blood sugar (insulin resistance) include fatigue after meals, constant hunger, cravings for sweets not relieved by eating them, constant thirst, frequent urination, difficulty falling asleep, and a big belly.

Blood sugar that is too low or too high means neurons are not receiving the energy they need to function, which often causes brain fog.

Unstable blood sugar is commonly caused by eating too many processed carbohydrates and sugary items, skipping meals, or chronic overeating.

Quite often relieving symptoms of brain fog can be as easy as stabilizing your blood sugar. Eat a whole foods diet based around vegetables, proteins, and healthy fats. Avoid sweets and processed foods, and keep carbohydrate consumption to a level that prevents symptoms of low or high blood sugar.

3. An unhealthy gut environment

Communication between the gut and the brain is ongoing and intimate. Bad gut health affects the brain and can cause symptoms of brain fog.

For instance, some people develop brain fog after eating certain foods, such as gluten, that trigger inflammation in the gut. If you have digestive problems, your gut may be playing a role in your brain fog.

Leaky gut is a condition in which the lining of the intestine becomes overly porous, allows undigested food particles, yeast, bacteria, and other harmful compounds to enter the bloodstream.

This triggers chronic inflammation in the gut, body, and brain, along with other health problems, such as food intolerances, pain, autoimmune disorders, skin issues, joint problems, depression, and, of course, brain fog.

4. Poor circulation and brain fog

Are your fingers, toes, and nose are cold to the touch? This may mean your brain is not receiving enough oxygen due to poor circulation. Other symptoms of poor circulation include weak nails, fungal nail infections, low brain endurance, and cramping in the hands and feet.

Low circulation deprives the brain of oxygen and nutrients, thus causing brain fog. Factors that cause low circulation include anemia, chronic stress, hypothyroidism, low blood pressure, smoking, and blood sugar imbalances.

5. Autoimmune disease and brain fog

Autoimmunity is a disorder in which the immune system attacks and destroys body tissue. Examples include Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, Type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.

This chronic inflammation goes on to inflame the brain, which hampers function and can cause brain fog. Brain fog is a common complaint among autoimmune sufferers.

Also, autoimmune attacks in the brain are more common than people realize. This, too, is linked with brain fog.

Don’t assume your brain fog is something to shrug off. It’s best to discover the underlying causes of brain fog and address them. This will not only give you better brain function but also help prevent dementia later in life. Ask my office for more information.

While concussions have gained attention for their link to dementia, did you know they also increase the risk for suicide? Just one concussion can triple the long-term risk of suicide in otherwise healthy people.

Although brain-injured football players have been receiving all the attention lately, the typical concussion patient is a middle-aged adult. Most concussions happen during traffic accidents, falls at home, and in other everyday situations.

A study looked at a quarter-million subjects who had been diagnosed with a mild concussion during the last 20 years. Researchers found suicide occurred at three times the norm in this population. They also found that on average suicide occurred nearly six years after the concussion. Also, the risk increased with additional concussions.

Why does a concussion increase suicide risk?

In functional medicine we know a concussion causes brain inflammation, from which the patient may never fully recover. Unlike the body’s immune system, the brain’s immune system does not shut off once triggered. As a result, unchecked brain inflammation damages and destroys healthy brain cells.

Brain inflammation is tied to various brain-based disorders, including depression and mental illness. In fact, a 2014 study concluded that sustaining a head injury leads to a greater risk of mental illness later in life.

When patients fail to employ strategies to dampen brain inflammation, post-concussive inflammation continues its crawl through the brain like a slow-burning fire, consuming neurons in its path. This can go on for years after the concussion, impacting mood, memory, and general function.

What’s more, thanks to intimate communication between the brain and the gut, a concussion often impacts gut health and function. Many people report the onset of digestive issues after a concussion.

This is bad news because research shows an inflamed and unhealthy gut is directly linked to depression, giving post-concussive patients a double whammy of depression-inducing inflammation that travels back and forth between the gut and the brain.

Functional medicine strategies for concussions

For every person who dies from suicide, many others think about it or suffer from chronic depression.

This study shows a clear need for better long-term care of patients with concussion.

Fortunately, functional medicine offers many strategies to reduce brain inflammation and lower the risk of mood disorders such as depression after a concussion:

Stabilizing blood sugar
Removing inflammatory triggers from the diet (such as gluten) or the environment (such as synthetic scents or toxic cleaning products)
Improving gut health and gut bacteria diversity
Identifying and addressing autoimmune diseases, situations where the body’s immune system attacks body tissue, creating chronic inflammation. Autoimmune reactions in the brain are more common than people realize.
Addressing chronic infections.
Improving blood flow and oxygenation flow in the brain.
Stabilizing hormones.
Using nutritional compounds to reduce inflammation in the brain.
These are among the foundations of functional medicine that can make the difference between a post-concussive downward spiral or be the springboard to a more brain-healthy way of living.

If life hasn’t been the same since your concussion, ask my office how functional medicine strategies can help.

If you’re one of the many people with high cholesterol, you may have been prescribed statin drugs and told to eat a low-fat diet — the standard advice for decades. However, experts have now reviewed the research and found there is no link between heart disease and total fat, saturated fat, or dietary cholesterol.

Statins made me forget where I parked the car

Cholesterol-lowering statins are among the most commonly prescribed and profitable medications in the world, taken by 25 percent of people over age 45. Touted to keep heart disease at bay, statin drugs are now known to be a cause of serious memory loss fuzzy thinking, learning difficulties, fatigue, muscle damage, and even diabetes.

Why do statins cause memory loss? The human brain is made up of 60 percent fat, much of that cholesterol. The brain uses cholesterol to build brain chemicals that allow neurons to communicate with one another. Without cholesterol, the brain’s cells eventually die from inactivity. Over time, this results in memory loss and other brain disorders. In studies of the elderly those with high total cholesterol actually have reduced risk of dementia – likely due to their body’s plentiful supply of this brain-supporting substance.

Cholesterol and heart attack risk

In a review of 72 studies researchers found that most heart attack patients’ cholesterol levels did not indicate cardiac risk; in fact, 75 percent of them had normal, not high LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Even more surprising, 90 percent of them had HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels under 60. Additionally, low HDL is a warning sign for pre-diabetes, and most of these patients had pre-diabetes, or “metabolic syndrome.” We now know that low HDL, not high LDL, is the real driver behind most heart attacks and heart disease, which changes the game on cholesterol management.

What about dietary fat?

Consider the following regarding low-fat diets. (Keep in mind this refers to intake of healthy fats):

High-fat diets lower triglycerides normalize LDL (bad cholesterol), and increase LDL particle size. LDL cholesterol comes in two sizes; large particles that move freely, causing no harm, and small particles that embed in artery walls, causing inflammation the buildup of plaque. You want fluffy large particles.
The National Institutes of Health reported that increasing fat intake to 50 percent of calories improved the nutritional status of heart study participants, and didn’t negatively affect heart disease risk factors.
The 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reviewed all the research over 40 years and told us to stop worrying about dietary cholesterol, arguing it is “not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”
People who consume low-fat diets are at increased risk for depression and suicide (remember how the brain is made from 60 percent fat).
And here’s the clincher: Harvard School of Public Health recently admitted that when it comes to disease prevention, low-fat diets don’t appear to offer any special benefits. It’s sugar and refined carbohydrates that contribute to obesity, pre-diabetes, heart disease, and many other health issues.
If not fat, what causes heart disease?

Here are five important factors in heart disease risk:

Inflammation in the body.
Free radicals that attack LDL and turn it from large (unharmful) into small (harmful) particles.
Trans fats that increase inflammation and raise triglycerides.
Sugar, which is inflammatory, promotes plaque formation in arteries, and raises stress hormones.
Stress, which increases blood pressure and causes other heath issues.
Ask my office how to have better heart health.

Everyone feels lonely from time to time. Maybe you miss a party, move to a new city, or lack a close circle of friends. Ideally, loneliness is temporary, but when it becomes chronic, it can have far-reaching consequences for our health. While we’ve known for decades that perceived social isolation, or loneliness, is a major risk factor for chronic illness and death, only more recently have we gained deeper clues into why loneliness is such a health risk.

Studies show loneliness affects immunity

In a study of overweight but otherwise healthy people, those with loneliness showed higher levels of inflammation when faced with stressful activities; another set of subjects experienced more inflammation, pain, depression and fatigue than normal, plus a reactivation of dormant viruses in the body. More recently, it was shown that loneliness reduced the ability to fight off viruses and bacteria.

Researchers say the body perceives loneliness as a stressor, causing it to go into a “fight or flight” response and release adrenal hormones. Over time this chronic stress response leads to chronic inflammation, setting the stage for numerous disorders, including depression, coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.

This explains why lonely people have been shown to be at increased risk for cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and viral infections.

Compounding the problem is the fact that chronic inflammation is linked with depression and other mental health issues, which may cause a lonely person to further isolate themselves in a vicious cycle that’s hard to break.

?The remedy for loneliness

Clearly, healthy social relationships are the best antidote to loneliness. Relationships don’t just happen – you have to make them happen.

Ideas to remedy loneliness include: Join Meetup.com groups, or start one; schedule time with friends or acquaintances; attend local events; sign up for classes to learn something new with other people; join a volunteer organization; join a church or spiritual community. If you look outside yourself you will find a cornucopia of healthy social opportunities.

Humans are designed to commune. It’s vital to health because in our history it was vital to survival. The stress response to loneliness and isolation is a red flag that you need the feeling of protection and inclusion socialization brings.

If you feel depression and lack of motivation are holding you back from reaching out to form a healthy social community, ask my office about ways diet and specific supplementation can help boost your desire to socialize.

With the promise of good intentions around the corner, the end of the year can turn into a downward spiral of too much sugar and alcohol.

It’s hard to get back on the healthy eating wagon, but knowing a few things about how sugar and alcohol affect the body can help.

Recovering from the sugar hangover

Has a sugar hangover left you with an upset stomach, a headache, brain fog, skin issues, chronic pain, mood swings, allergy symptoms, lethargy, and self-loathing?

Steps for recovering from a sugar hangover include:

No sugar. Holiday desserts shoot your blood sugar levels up and down. This taxes the immune system, imbalances brain chemistry, and skews hormones. To stabilize blood sugar, eat protein every two to three hours, never skip breakfast, and avoid sweets and starchy foods. Focus on proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats.

Hydrate. Staying hydrated with filtered water will help flush toxins from your body.

Support your liver. Help your liver flush toxins with compounds such as as milk thistle, dandelion, N-acetyl L-cysteine, beet root, panax ginseng, and more.

Heal your gut. Unstable blood sugar inflames the gut and promotes yeast and bacterial overgrowth. In addition to stabilizing blood sugar, follow the autoimmune paleo diet that eliminates common immune triggers (such as gluten), and use gut support compounds like probiotics and L-glutamine.

Exercise. If you’ve been morphing into the couch, go easy initially to avoid more inflammation. Appropriate exercise will help tame inflammation, improve brain function, and help flush toxins.

Recovering from the alcohol hangover

Alcohol hangovers are their own special hell.

We don’t fully know why hangovers happen, but a few facts can help us recover from them.

Alcohol blocks the production of a hormone that helps the body absorb water. As a result, the body immediately excretes the water—up to four times as much as the alcohol consumed. This is what causes fatigue, dry mouth, and a headache. Drink plenty and use electrolytes to help rehydrate.

When that water is excreted, many of our water-soluble vitamins go with it, contributing to that lousy hung-over. A b-complex supplement before drinking and another the next day can help compensate.

Alcohol also breaks down the body’s store of glycogen, an energy source, thus causing weakness, fatigue, and lack of coordination. It’s important to remember to eat.

Drinking alcohol creates the powerful toxin acetaldehyde in the body. The body attacks it with an antioxidant called glutathione, our body’s most powerful antioxidant. Using natural compounds to support glutathione can help with recovery.

Alcohol inhibits glutamine, one of the body’s natural stimulants. When you stop drinking, the body responds by producing more than it needs, disrupting sleep and causing hangover tremors, anxiety, restlessness, and increased blood pressure. Allow yourself to take it easy.

The New Year is a great time not to focus on unrealistic goals, rather on simple daily strategies to not only recover from holiday excesses but also improve how you feel and function all year. Ask my office for more advice.