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.

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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!

Thyroid Medication! Are they good for me?

“Dr. King, I am Taking my Thyroid Medication, but I still Have Symptoms. What do I do?”

After working with thousands of thyroid patients over the last 10 years, I have heard this statement hundreds of times. If you are on your thyroid medication, and you are still having symptoms, keep reading this article…

Do Thyroid Medications Really Help?

Thyroid Medication serves its purpose, and there are times when medication is truly needed. In the case of low thyroid, medication is needed (now, there are natural alternatives to medication, but I will be going into those details in an upcoming article).

A lot of times, patients notice a big change in their hypothyroid symptoms when first starting the medication (some of the most common hypothyroid medications are the following: Synthroid, Levothyroxine and Armour). I like to call this the honeymoon period. After a while, however, symptoms begin slowly coming back. This could be the fatigue a patient first felt before starting their medication, sleeplessness, weight gain/loss, hair falling out, etc.

Two of the main reasons patients don’t utilize their thyroid medication properly are due liver and gastro-intestinal dysfunction.

Why would my liver and GI lining affect my thyroid?

Your liver helps to convert and utilize 60% of your T4 hormone to T3!!! 60%??? That’s right, 60% of your thyroid hormone utilization is dependent upon a healthy functioning liver.

How many times have you cleansed your liver? If you are like most patients, the answer is…never! Can you imagine never cleaning your lint filter in your dryer? Or, never changing your car’s air/oil filter? Your liver is your body’s big filter; it helps to detoxify your blood.

Your liver, also, plays a significant role in helping to get your T3 (the main active thyroid hormone) into your cells, in order to produce energy, run metabolism and feel well.

Your gastro-intestinal lining helps with another 20% of thyroid hormone utilization. This means, if you have any GI symptoms, you are not getting up to 20% of T3 hormone into your cells.

What do I do to help my body utilize thyroid hormone?

First, you will want to detoxify your liver. Before you freak out and tell me about all the scary stories you have read about on Google, here me out: if you prepare your body well enough, the liver flush will be easy on your body and very productive.

Those people that “jump” into doing a liver flush, can end up feeling sick, throwing up and not passing a lot of toxins.

I have my patients prepare for three weeks before their big flush day! Three week’s worth of preparation vs. a few days of preparation…this makes a big change in how one feels going through the flush.

I have had over 1,000 patients perform this liver flush. So far, so good

Now onto the GI lining!

This is a little more complicated than flushing out the liver. I must make sure that a patient doesn’t have any infections, first. If there are any bacterial or parasitic infections, those “bad guys” must be eradicated in order to help the heal GI lining.

Next, is the GI lining absorbing? This is called Leaky Gut Syndrome, or Intestinal Permeability. I grew up with this condition…it is not fun!

LGS/IP takes, roughly, 90-120 days to heal. This requires using specific herbs, along with probiotics, to heal. Along with changing one’s eating habits.

Healing the GI lining is one reason patients consult with me, as I see this in every autoimmune patient I work with.

What should you do now?

Unless you have been studying how to cleanse the liver and heal the GI lining, you may feel more lost now than before you started reading.

That is, ok! This is why patients consult with me. Feel free to reach out and contact me or call my clinic to schedule your complimentary phone consultation. We will discuss your thyroid condition (keep in mind, I work with hypothyroid, hyperthyroid, Grave’s Disease and Hashimoto’s Disease).

You may also input your email below to receive my 10-Thyroid Friendly Breakfast Recipes!

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.

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.

It’s a frustrating but not uncommon scenario: You struggle with food or chemical sensitivities, suspected autoimmunity, and leaky gut symptoms. You plunk down hundreds of dollars (or more) for state-of-the-art testing from Cyrex Labs, eager for specific guidance.

And all the results come back negative. Or they all come back positive. Either way, you’re poorer and still clueless about the specifics of your situation.

Because Cyrex Labs testing is relatively new, people are still learning how best to test. Follow the tips below to maximize your lab testing dollars.

Make sure immunity is sufficient enough to test

This is a major culprit in producing primarily or totally negative results. If your immune system is wiped out, you may not produce enough antibodies to test.

You can screen for this prior to your Cyrex test by ordering a total immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, and IgM) test. If they’re low, your Cyrex results may come back negative despite obvious symptoms.

Shoring up your immune system is an in-depth topic, but here is an overview: Follow the autoimmune diet and supplement with nutrients such as vitamins A and D, glutathione and other compounds to dampen autoimmune flares, and omega 3 essential fatty acids. Plenty of sleep, balancing blood sugar, physical activity, and lowering stress are also important.

A key strategy is to eat an ample amount and wide variety of vegetables to foster the gut bacteria that support immunity. If you cannot eat many vegetables, supplement with short-chain fatty acids and probiotics.

Also, you may need to ferret out and address hidden sources of infection.

Please note that taking immune-enhancing herbs such as Echinacea is not recommended as it can worsen autoimmunity in some people.

Avoid drugs that suppress immunity if possible

Immunosuppressant medications and drugs that contain steroids, such as hydrocortisone, will often result in false negative results. If you are able to go off them, wait at least a couple of months before testing.

Don’t expect positive results to foods you don’t eat

Don’t expect positive results for foods you don’t eat, even if you know they are problematic for you. You need to eat the foods on the panel at least a month before testing. If you have not eaten that food in the last three to four months you will not test positive (unless you ate it accidentally).

If you know you react severely to certain foods, then of course do not eat them just to test.

What if most Array 5 results come back positive?

If almost all of your results on the Array 5 Multiple Autoimmune Reactivity come back positive, this does not mean your entire body is under attack. Instead, it means you’re likely fighting an active viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection.

What if most Array 10 results come back positive?

If you test positive to most of the 180 foods on the Array 10 Multiple Food Immune Reactivity screen, this does not necessarily mean you have to give up all of those foods. Instead, it means you have lost “dietary oral tolerance” and the immune system is over reacting to all foods.

When this happens, only avoid foods to which you knowingly react and work to restore oral tolerance using the same strategies to shore up your immune system. The key is to dampen the hyper zealous immune response and boost secretory IgA levels so you can better tolerate more foods.

This is a very general overview of some things to address before using Cyrex Labs testing. When approached with the right knowledge, the results can be powerful in helping fine tune your wellness journey.

Ask my office for more advice on Cyrex Labs testing and autoimmune management.

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.

It’s a common argument: “You don’t need to take supplements if you eat a good diet.” Although a good diet is foundational to good health, supplements play an instrumental role in various health conditions.

People who don’t understand the value of supplements think they exist only to profit off of “suckers for snake oil.” To be sure, those products exist.

Others view them as dangerous and unregulated compounds that should be taken off the market. Those products exist as well.

The United States is unique compared to the rest of the west in terms of of the freedom of our supplement market. Supplement availability in Europe and Canada is severely limited compared to the United States.

With this comes pros and cons.

How to be a smart supplement shopper

The key to understanding supplements is to understand the underlying causes of your condition.

For instance, ten different people can each have a different cause for leaky gut, insomnia, pain, depression, and so on. Buying a “depression supplement,” or an “insomnia supplement,” can result in failure and frustration.

Also, quality matters. Supplements from your local chain supermarket are not going to meet the same standards of quality, care, specificity, and educational support of supplements sold through a practitioner.

The good news about our supplement market is we have access to high quality supplements and education.

Why you may need supplements

Here are some reasons you may need supplements even if you eat a pristine whole foods diet.

Because you are aging. As we age certain functions start to diminish, such as digestion, brain function, recovery time, hormone balance, and more.

Digestive supplements support diminishing hydrochloric acid and pancreatic enzyme support. Brain nutrients help support oxygenation and activity of the brain (although they won’t compensate for poor diet and lifestyle). Various herbs support hormone balance and energy production.

Because we live in a stressful, toxic world. We are dealing with extreme levels of stress and toxic chemicals in our food and environment. This contributes to such conditions as chronic pain, inflammation, autoimmunity, and brain dysfunctions. Many supplements are designed to buffer the effects of the stressful and toxic burdens we deal with daily.

Because many of us grew up eating a crap diet. You may eat a good diet now, but if you grew up on junk food and a sedentary lifestyle, you may have sustained metabolic damage, such as unstable blood sugar, hormonal imbalance, poor stress handling, chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, and more. These don’t always reverse themselves through diet alone.

Supplements geared toward stabilizing blood sugar, supporting stress handling, and taming inflammation can super charge your whole foods diet.

Because our foods are compromised. Even if you eat the perfect diet, studies show our foods aren’t as nutrient dense as they were in the past. You still may benefit from at least a good multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement.

“Supplements” have a long history of use

This is a broad overview of ways supplements can help. Most supplements consist of herbs and other natural compounds that have sound scientific support and have been used throughout humanity around the globe. While pharmaceuticals have been a vital boon to medicine, they are also relative newcomers.

Ask my office for advice on how to supplement smartly.

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.

Aging can cause us to feel invisible and unwanted in a society that worships youth. However, the key to staying youthful into your latter years doesn’t lay in the hands of your hair stylist or medical spa, but instead in your attitude.

Research shows internalizing negative stereotypes about aging harms your health, which speeds up aging. However, having a positive attitude toward aging can boost immune function, promote healthy behaviors, and help you feel in control of your life.

Embrace aging for the following benefits

Here are some benefits researchers have found to a positive perception of aging, such as feeling useful and happy with yourself:

Positive perception of aging has been shown to be more important than cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and even exercise when it comes to improving longevity.
One study found positive self-perception around aging lowered the risk of aging-associated disability and preserved daily function and ability.
Positive aging improves preventive behaviors such as sticking to a good diet, exercising, and following through with check-ups.
Expecting to lose your memory has been shown to increase cognitive decline by up to 30 percent compared to thinking positively about your brain function.
And of course, a negative perception of aging has been shown to increase the risk of heart disease. A startling find, however, was that developing a positive aging attitude can reduce the risk of heart disease by up to 80 percent.
How to positively embrace aging

Although you might not be able to embrace aging overnight, it can be done, even in this culture. The first step is to survey your attitude about aging and what you believe old age holds in store for you: Senility and disability? Or wisdom and vitality?

Beyond that, turn your attention away from a cultural philosophy that values people based on their work productivity and instead toward one that values aging as socially valuable and even a time of renaissance.

Some nuts and bolts of healthy aging

A positive attitude has been shown to be vital to good health. However, it’s important to pay attention the nuts and bolts of good health, too.

Regular exercise is regarded as somewhat of a magic bullet by researchers. People who exercise regularly throughout their lives age better and enjoy better brain function throughout their lives.

Along with that that comes a diet low in sugars and processed carbs — chronically high blood sugar is behind many chronic diseases and brain degeneration. In fact, some researchers call Alzheimer’s disease type 3 diabetes because of the links between high blood sugar and brain degeneration.

Avoiding other inflammatory foods (besides sugar, gluten and dairy are the most common inflammatory foods) while loading up on fresh veggies is another preventive dietary approach.

Lastly, healthy aging depends on a healthy, nutrient-dense diet that is rich in fresh vegetable as well as healthy fats.

Ask my office for more advice on how to age in a healthy, positive way you can embrace.

Our bodies have to work hard to deal with hundreds of toxic chemicals in our daily environment, in our food, and our water. Even if you eat a clean, organic diet and use non-toxic products, it’s impossible to completely avoid them. Thankfully, certain natural compounds can boost levels of our most powerful antioxidant, glutathione, in our bodies.

Glutathione is a powerful defense against toxins and inflammation. It protects the body’s cells from damage, it helps detoxify the body, and supports optimal immune function.

When glutathione levels drop too low, this makes you more susceptible to autoimmune disease, multiple food sensitivities, chemical and heavy metal sensitivities, chronic inflammatory disorders, leaky gut, and other immune-related issues.

By ensuring your glutathione levels stay at robust levels, you provide your body with an army of soldiers ready to “take a bullet” and shield your cells from the destructive forces of toxins and inflammation.

Things that deplete glutathione

In an ideal world, we have plenty of glutathione. Our bodies make sufficient amounts and the glutathione system is not overly taxed. Sadly, the modern world is far from ideal. Chronic stress, environmental toxins, diets low in nutrients but high in inflammatory triggers, sleep deprivation, smoking, sugar, excess alcohol, and other stressors slowly deplete glutathione levels. Glutathione levels also decrease naturally as a result of aging.

A straight glutathione supplement is not effective taken orally. Instead, people can take glutathione through a liposomal cream, nebulizer, suppository, IV drip, or injections. S-acetyl-glutathione, reduced glutathione, and oral liposomal glutathione are forms that are absorbable orally. These methods will help raise glutathione levels and your general antioxidant status, which can reduce inflammation and improve health.

Another method that raises glutathione uses precursors to boost levels and recycle glutathione within cells.

Glutathione recycling helps guard against autoimmunity

Recycling glutathione entails taking existing glutathione the body has already used in self-defense and rebuilding it so it can work for us again.

Research shows a link between poor glutathione recycling and autoimmune disease. In other words, if you’re not recycling glutathione well you’re at more risk of developing autoimmune disease. Healthy glutathione recycling is a vital tool in managing autoimmune disease.

Glutathione recycling helps repair leaky gut

Glutathione recycling also helps repair leaky gut and protect it from permeability. Leaky gut can lead to or exacerbate autoimmunity, multiple food sensitivities, and chronic inflammation. When glutathione recycling is insufficient, a person is more prone to developing leaky gut and all that maladies that accompany it. Glutathione recycling is vital to good gut health.

How to boost glutathione recycling

The most important first step to boost glutathione recycling is to remove the stressors depleting glutathione levels to the best of your ability. Look at your life around sleep deprivation, smoking, foods that cause inflammation, sugars and processed foods, excess alcohol, and other factors.

In addition to addressing lifestyle factors, you can take a variety of nutritional and botanical compounds that have been shown to support glutathione recycling. They include:

N-acetyl-cysteine
Alpha-lipoic acid
L-glutamine
Selenium
Cordyceps
Gotu kola
Milk thistle
Booting your glutathione levels with an absorbable form and then supporting glutathione recycling can significantly help you manage autoimmune disease, inflammatory disorders, chemical sensitivities, food sensitivities, and more.

It’s an addiction to insanity in our culture, one of the most overfed populations in human history — the weight loss diet.

Despite plenty of scientific evidence that diets don’t produce lasting results for most people and despite countless numbers of dieters, most of them women, thrown into a lifetime of damaging despair, low self-esteem, and self-hatred thanks to failing diets, our culture still blindly adheres to the low-calorie diet as the panacea for all life’s problems, including those extra pounds.

The reality TV show The Biggest Loser provided the perfect high-profile platform for scientists to showcase what millions of Americans have learned the hard way: diets make you fatter in the long run.

Why dieting makes you fat

For most of our species’ history, meager food supply and bouts of famine have been the norm. As a result, the body prioritizes conserving fat and energy through altering its metabolism and fat-storing hormones.

Metabolism slows dramatically for years

Eating fewer calories to lose weight significantly slows your metabolism and causes you to regain the weight quickly and easily. The body will fight for years to get back to its previous set point. Contestants on the Biggest Loser learned they now burn between 400 and 800 fewer calories six years after their televised weight loss journey. In other words, they have to under eat just to not continually gain fat.

Satiety hormones skewed for years

Diets also skew levels of leptin and other satiety hormones. These hormones control hunger and food cravings. All of the show’s contestants had normal levels of leptin prior to losing weight. After losing weight their leptin levels plummeted to near nil. A follow-up study showed after they had regained the weight leptin levels were at about half of original levels. Other satiety hormones were also out of range.

This caused contestants increased hunger and cravings.

Televised torture for weight loss

The weight loss program The Biggest Loser contestants were put on not only ultimately damaged their metabolisms, it was unrealistic, tortuous, and exhausting. Contestants ate too few calories and exercised many hours a day, needing to quit their jobs to meet the weight loss demands. Maintaining the weight loss required exercising two to three hours a day and continued under eating. They were also left with mounds of loose skin.

Understand how the body works to lose weight

Fortunately, sustainable weight loss is possible for many people who understand functional medicine approaches to metabolism, satiety hormones, and the effects of stress and inflammation on weight. Unfortunately, those who have lost and gained weight repeatedly during their lives will have a bigger battle. It is also important to manage underlying causes of weight gain, such as emotional and addiction issues, PTSD, and chronic stress. For instance, one study showed many overweight women have been sexually abused as children.

Although portion control and regular physical activity are important, so too are managing the types of foods you eat. For instance, processed carbohydrates and sweets trigger the mechanisms that cause cravings and weight gain. On the other hand, consuming ample vegetables can alter the composition of gut bacteria in a way that fosters weight loss. Eliminating foods that are inflammatory, such as gluten in the case of gluten-sensitive people, can reduce stress on the body, thus facilitating fat burning.

And lastly, ditching the self-loathing and shame that accompanies diets can also reduce fat-promoting stress.

Ask my office for ideas on how to release weight in a way that is sustainable and healthy for the body.

For decades, media experts have promoted a diet high in omega 6 fats — found in corn, soybean, canola, and safflower — to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. We now know excess omega 6 fatty acids is connected to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, psychiatric issues, and cancer.

Omega 3 fats, however, are linked with lowered inflammation, better brain function, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

Our grandparents ate a much different ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids than we do; omega 3-rich wild and grass-fed meats were the norm, and traditional omega 3 fats such as butter and lard were always on hand.

Omega 6 fats promote chronic illness

Introducing processed seed, nut, and bean oils into our diet while reducing grass-fed and wild fats has resulted in Americans becoming deficient in essential omega 3 fats, while having way too many omega 6 fats on board.

In addition, these processed oils are commonly chemical-laden and rancid, carrying toxic free radicals that promote inflammation throughout the body.

Many studies show a connection between inflammation and chronic health issues. It’s common knowledge in the medical world that omega 6 oils encourage inflammation in the body. They also reduce the availability of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats in your tissues, resulting in even more systemic inflammation.

Even more, they reduce conversion of plant-based omega 3 fats into essential, active forms of omega 3s called EPA and DHA—by about 40 percent!

Over consuming omega 6 fats and under consuming omega 3 fats significantly increases the risk of:

Heart disease
Obesity
Pre-diabetes
Type 2 diabetes
Inflammatory bowel syndrome
Rheumatoid arthritis
Asthma
Cancer
Autoimmunity
In addition, consuming too many omega 6 acids increases the likelihood of mental illness and suicide, due to the connection between inflammation and mental health issues.

Which fats should I eat?

While we do need some omega 6 fats in our diet, we need a higher ratio of omega 3 fats to keep inflammation in check. It’s easy to get plenty of omega 6 fats in the American diet, so our focus needs to be on getting enough omega 3 fats.

Fats that protect the brain and reduce inflammation include:

Extra-virgin, cold-pressed, organic coconut oil—which is anti-inflammatory and may help improve your cholesterol numbers. It also handles medium to medium-high cooking heat.
Unrefined, extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil.
Avocados and avocado oil.
Nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pecans, macadamia; avoid peanuts.
Grass-fed meats and butter, which have about 7 times the omega 3 fats that conventionally-raised beef has (which is near zero).
Fatty cold-water fish such as sardines, herring, salmon and mackerel, which are all rich in omega 3 fats.
With the epidemic of inflammation-based chronic health issues skyrocketing today, it’s important to reduce your risks for inflammation. Changing the fats you eat is one easy way to boost anti-inflammatory effects. If you have concerns or questions regarding your diet, or your level of inflammation, please contact my office.

You’ve probably heard that depression and other mental health issues are based on a lack of brain chemicals such as serotonin and GABA. Conventional treatment is to give medications that trick the brain into thinking it has enough chemicals. But new research shows in many cases mental health issues are related to chronic inflammation, not necessarily a lack of chemicals, and unstable blood sugar is often at the root of inflammation.

How does inflammation cause mood issues?

When the body is chronically inflamed, it sends chemical messengers to the brain, where they activate the brain’s immune cells, called glial cells. Chronic inflammation permanently activates the glial cells, setting off a cascade of destruction:

Reduced production of brain chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA.
Brain cells can’t produce vital energy to thrive.
Cells degrade and die, releasing toxins into the brain, causing even more damage.
The result? Depression, anxiety, and even Alzheimer’s.
How does blood sugar factor in?

The fix for these issues is managing the destructive inflammatory cascade At the core of systemic inflammation for many people is blood sugar balance. When we eat too many sugars or carbs, the body over-produces insulin, a hormone that helps escort glucose (sugar) into cells for energy. Too much insulin in the blood exhausts the cells, resulting in them becoming resistant to it (insulin resistance). This leads to excess glucose in the bloodstream, which is severely damaging to tissues in the blood vessels and brain. It is also a precursor to diabetes.

How can I keep my blood sugar balanced?

By keeping blood sugar balanced, we can help reduce the inflammatory cascade that creates brain inflammation. Below are dietary and lifestyle habits that help keep blood sugar stable. By practicing them, you may notice positive shifts in your mood, energy level and mental focus:

Always eat a protein-strong breakfast within an hour of waking. Include healthy fats, and avoid sweets and fruit before lunch.
Eat every 3–4 hours to avoid low blood sugar.
Eat protein with every meal and snack; never eat just sweets.
When you crave sugar, choose protein or foods with healthy fats such as coconut or olive oil.
Eat a small high-protein snack before bed to keep blood sugar stable throughout the night.
Don’t use caffeine to boost low energy in that afternoon “crash;” it’s your brain telling you it needs real nutrients, not stimulants. Instead, eat a healthy snack with protein, fat and a few carbs, and hydrate with water.
Wake and go to bed at the same time every day. Get plenty of sleep and if you’re tired, let yourself nap. Exercise regularly to keep blood sugar stable. Also, a 5- to 7-minute burst of high intensity exercise helps reduce inflammatory factors in the brain.
In addition to the factors above, certain botanicals are highly effective in helping manage blood sugar and reduce brain inflammation. If you have questions about mood and blood sugar stability, please contact my office.

If you have an autoimmune disease, chronic inflammation, or signs of brain inflammation (such as brain fog), you may have noticed it can be tough to tame the inflammation. This is because the body can get trapped in vicious cycles that feed the inflammation.

Luckily, researchers have pinpointed what perpetuates these cycles and ways to stop them. They include targeting two immune messengers called “nitrous oxide” and “IL-17.”

The immune system triggers inflammation by releasing an immune messenger called IL-17. IL-17 triggers other immune cells to damage body tissue, such as the thyroid gland in the case of autoimmune Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism or joint tissue in rheumatoid arthritis.

IL-17 isn’t all bad—in a healthy immune system it prevents infections. But chronic inflammation or an autoimmune disease create too much IL-17.

Inflammation, IL-17, and “bad” nitric oxide

IL-17 damages body tissue by activating a compound called “inducible nitric oxide.” Nitric oxide is a gas in the body that activates various processes.

Two good forms of nitric oxide tame inflammation: endothelial and neuronal nitric oxide.

However, IL-17 triggers the pro-inflammatory inducible nitric oxide, which damages body tissue.

Targeting nitric oxide to tame inflammation

When it comes to taming chronic inflammation, we want to dampen IL-17 and inducible nitric oxide.

So why not just take the nitric oxide booster arginine? Although arginine may boost the anti-inflammatory endothelial nitric oxide, it also may increase the inflammatory inducible nitric oxide.

It’s safer, therefore, to go with nutritional compounds that boost the anti-inflammatory endothelial nitric oxide for maximum inflammation fighting effects:

Adenosine
Huperzine A
Vinpocetine
Alpha GPC
Xanthinol niacinate
L-acetyl carnitine
Endothelial nitric oxide aids in tissue repair and regeneration, enhances blood flow, dissolves plaques, and dilates blood vessels. Exercise is another excellent way to boost endothelial nitric oxide.

These compounds may also boost the activity of neuronal nitric oxide, which enhances the health of the brain and nervous system.

Other anti-inflammatory tools

Others inflammation busters include vitamin D3, omega 3 fatty acids, and glutathione Glutathione is vital to dampening inflammation, repairing damaged tissues, maintaining a healthy gut (which houses most of the immune system), and buffering the body from the many stressors we face these days.

Other helpful tools are high doses of emulsified resveratrol and curcumin. Taken together, these two compounds dampen IL-17 and quench inflammation.

Of course, eliminating pro-inflammatory foods with an autoimmune diet (especially gluten), getting enough sleep, not overstressing yourself are important, too. Ask my office for advice.

Have you ever wondered why a walk in the woods makes you feel so good? While that Zen feeling is partly about “getting away from it all,” studies show time in nature is also powerfully therapeutic for the body and brain.

More than half of the world’s population lives in an urban setting, and by 2050 that number will increase to a whopping 70 percent. Urbanization disconnects us from nature with measurable effects on our health. For example, city dwellers are at a 40 percent higher risk for mood disorders than rural folk.

Eight reasons nature is powerful medicine for your body and brain

Spending time in nature is known for its anti-inflammatory effects, and its positive impacts on mood and depression. Here are eight great reasons to spend more time in nature:

1. Vitamin D: Exposure to sunlight enables us to produce this critical hormone. In our increasingly indoor world, many people find they are deficient in Vitamin D. This can lead to a variety of health problems, including depression. Vitamin D is also critical to regulating inflammation.

2. Improved sleep: Sleep patterns are tied to the sun’s schedule. Spending too much time indoors away from natural light can alter this rhythm, which plays a role in many metabolic processes and mental health. Early morning exposure to sunlight has been shown to recalibrate the sleep cycle, and one study found participants were cured of insomnia in one week of camping outdoors with no exposure to electronics or electric light.

3. Increased emotional stability and empathy: People who spend time in nature show increased activity in parts of the brain responsible for empathy, emotional stability, and love. In case you were wondering, yes, urban environments, have the opposite effect of promoting fear and anxiety.

4. Grounding: A study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine reported that grounding (bare-skinned contact with the earth) can have an intense anti-inflammatory and energizing effect on the body.

5. Creativity: A study of backpackers found that after four days in nature, subjects scored 50 percent better on a creativity test.

6. A breath of fresh air: Outdoor air really is fresher than indoor air! The EPA states that indoor pollutants are 2 to 100 times higher than outdoor pollutants!

7. Improved mood: A Stanford study showed that participants who walked for 90 minutes in a natural environment were less apt to focus on life’s shortcomings compared to subjects who walked along a busy highway. Added bonus: Time in the sun boosts serotonin, a brain hormone responsible for happiness.

8. Renewed mental focus: Interaction with nature gives your brain a break from everyday stimulation, allowing it to restore your attention levels.

Hit the hills!

Live in a city with no green space nearby? Try to get out of town into nature as often as you can. But even roaming the green places in your city can bring great benefits. And don’t worry if you aren’t capable of a vigorous hike; even “non-exercise activity” has solid benefits.

What are you planning for your next outdoor excursion?

While volunteering is good for those in need, the giver cashes in big on generosity, too. Studies show the benefits of generosity and volunteering include a heightened sense of well-being, increased self-worth, and improved emotional and physical health.

How generosity makes you happier

Generosity and volunteering produce hormones that relieve stress, promote happiness, cause a natural high (endorphins), and promote bonding and tranquility.

Being generous makes us feel better about ourselves It builds confidence, and encourages us to focus toward the world rather than ourselves.

When we improve someone else’s life, empowerment grows and we are better able to deal with life’s hardships.

Volunteering can help you feel better

Generosity and volunteering also lower mortality rates, reduce cardiovascular risk, decrease anxiety and depression, and improve sleep.

In fact, one study showed adults who volunteered at least four hours a week for one year were 40 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure compared to non-volunteers.

Another study of teens found those who spent an hour a week helping children in after-school programs had lower levels of cholesterol and inflammation than their non-volunteering peers.

Generosity must be genuine to benefit health

Don’t volunteer or be generous simply out of obligation in order to improve your health.

If you want to enjoy the health benefits of generosity and volunteering, it must be genuine. Make sure you’re focused on helping others and not just looking good.

A 2012 study found that older volunteers had a lower risk of dying in a four-year period than non-volunteers, as long as their volunteerism was for altruistic and not self-oriented reasons.

Tips for volunteering to improve your health

Offer to do something your enjoy.
Help with a cause you’re passionate about.
Be realistic about your schedule so you don’t stress out.
Volunteer with others so it’s socially beneficial.
Don’t give up if your first attempt is a bad match.
Receive generosity with grace so others can benefit as well

Remember, generosity and volunteering are good for everyone. Others may have chronic health conditions they are working to manage.

If someone is generous to you, don’t brush it off or feel undeserving — receive their kindness with sincerity and grace. This will bring you closer to the person and allow them reap the benefits of giving as well.

Most pet lovers find their furry, feathered, hoofed, and scaly companions count among their best friends. But pets aren’t only good company — research shows they greatly benefit your mental and physical health.

Pets help the developing immune system

A study in Finland showed that babies who grew up in a home with cats and dogs were 44 percent less likely to develop ear infections and 29 percent less likely to receive antibiotics in their first year compared to babies from pet-free homes. The theory is that exposure to bacteria brought in from outside by pets helps the developing immune system learn how to react properly to germs in the environment. And the more time the pet spent outdoors, the greater the benefit.

Other studies show that children who live with dogs and cats in the first year of life are less likely to develop allergies to those animals later in life.

Pets help you live longer and lower disease risk

Babies aren’t the only ones benefiting from pets:

People with pets have lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels than non pet-owners, regardless of weight, diet, and smoking habits.
In subjects who have experienced a heart attack, dog ownership decreases the odds for death the first year post-heart-attack from 1 in 15 to 1 in 87!
In people undergoing stress tests or physical examinations, the presence of a dog during the exam lowered heart rate and blood pressure.
“Seizure-alert” animals are trained to signal their owners prior to a seizure as well as protect them during the event.
Some pets are trained to alert their diabetic humans to episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) before life-threatening symptoms develop.
Prescription drug use and overall costs of caring for patients in nursing homes dropped in facilities where companion animals became part of daily therapy.
The need to exercise a pet and care for it often results in better physical and mental health for the human, regardless of age.
Researchers at the University of Arizona are exploring whether dogs can improve human health by having a probiotic effect on the body.
Pets provide mental, emotional, and social benefits

A study at Tufts University found young adult pet owners are more connected to their communities and relationships, are more engaged in community service, help family and friends, demonstrate more leadership, and have more empathy and confidence than non pet owners.

Caring for a pet can prevent downward spirals by providing consistency and routine, helping us feel needed, and giving us something to do each day.

This is especially true for those who live alone, as well as the elderly, who say their pets provide social companionship and a reason to get out of the house for exercise and socialization.

Even families surveyed before and after they acquired a pet reported feeling happier after adopting a pet.

In conclusion, pet owners exhibit greater self-esteem, are more physically fit, more conscientious, less lonely, more socially outgoing, and have healthier relationship styles than non-pet people. The researchers concluded that our pets contribute to our sense of self just as much as our human companions do.