At AskDrKing, we know that a thyroid condition involves more than just your thyroid gland. Many doctors only look at the thyroid when diagnosing the condition, but we 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 are shown in our diagram as “A”. 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…

If you are suffering from an autoimmune disorder, that will wreak havoc onto your adrenals, your pituitary AND your thyroid glands. All of these diagnoses need to be taken into consideration when looking at a person’s thyroid condition.

If your doctors aren’t analyzing how your adrenal glands and pituitary gland are working, then they are missing a huge part of the puzzle in managing your health care needs.

How do we find the missing pieces in your puzzle?

One of our tools is an Adrenal Salivary Test, which measures the levels of stress hormones DHEA and cortisol, and provides an evaluation of how cortisol levels differ throughout the day. In fact, this test can uncover biochemical imbalances that are the underlying causes of conditions like anxiety, chronic fatigue, obesity, diabetes, depression and insomnia, among others. Our patients are very happy that this test is non-invasive, and only involves collecting saliva into a test tube.

Are you ready for a health-care professional that understands your condition and looks at it from a holistic perspective? Are you ready to have the cause of your symptoms managed properly, not just the symptoms as they happen? Are you ready to feel better and get your life back? If so, please contact us immediately to schedule a consultation: (714) 731-7680.

Are you still struggling with diabetes?

Are you tired of the doctors increasing your medications? Are you ready to get your condition under control? At the AskDrKing, we specialize in helping patients with diabetes. What do we do? We help people regain their life!

The information you are reading now can help you change your life—that is, IF you let it. I am the only person in the Tustin region using neurological and metabolic therapy in order to help patients with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.

Are you reading this because you’re tired of the medical “merry-go-round”? Or you’re tired of not getting the results you want? Or maybe you’re trying to help a family member or friend who is suffering from diabetes?

I’d just like to start by saying that the medical establishment is great in emergency care, great at saving lives, and great at doling out medications. The alternative model, where we work from, is great at making the body function the way it’s supposed to. There’s only a handful of us throughout the country that are using these specific therapies to help you get your life back.

Remember in our last blog we compared the body to a car, where the brain is the engine and the blood is the oil. If you do not keep your body functioning properly, your brain, or your “motor”, will break down. This is called neurological degeneration, and it’s what causes diseases like Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s.

What makes us different from your primary care physician? First of all, you’re probably going to them because you are hooked on the medication, and you’re reading this because you don’t want to be. Did you know that Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition? Has your primary care physician discussed this with you? We see it every day in our office. An autoimmune condition means that the body is attacking itself, and in Type 1 Diabetes, it means that your body has attacked and destroyed part of your pancreas.

And that’s not all…

Type 1 Diabetes will lead on to further autoimmune conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, arthritis, Lupus, Celiac/Crohn’s Disease, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. These are serious diseases, and if you don’t get your present autoimmune condition under control, then your body will start attacking further areas of your body, and you WILL develop other autoimmune disorders.

Why hasn’t your primary care physician told you these things? Simple: They can’t do anything about it until enough tissue has been destroyed. How much is “enough”? When it gets bad enough to be seen on blood tests—that is, if they are running the right lab tests—and then they’ll tell you that you have an additional disease. This is not to discredit the medical establishment, we are just recounting the common practice that goes on in the typical medical model across the United States in diabetes cases.

Do you want to wait until there’s that much tissue damage done, and you have another disease, before you get help? Or would you like to prevent that from happening? If you want to prevent it, keep reading.

Think of your diabetes as a fire in your fireplace at home; if you throw gasoline on it, the fire will not just flare up, it could potentially burn the whole house down. There are many different things you’re doing in your life today that can be considered to be like throwing gasoline on your diabetes “fire”: bacterium, parasites, mold, yeast, anemia, blood sugar dysregulation, liver dysfunction, gastrointestinal dysfunction, fatty acid absorbtion dysfunction. All of these things are food sensitivities, and they can act like gasoline on that fire. And if your physician is not checking you for these food sensitivities, then they can be missing a huge piece of the puzzle for getting you well, and actually making you predisposed for more autoimmune attacks.

Every patient with a chronic condition that walks in our door is suffering from some sort of neurological dysfunction and, as we said before, this degeneration can be the cause of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Do you have friends or family members suffering from these diseases? Do you want to suffer from the same symptoms? That is what will happen if the symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes are not managed and controlled.

What we at the Tustin Chronic Condition Center do is proper testing; we test your immune panels as well as we test your adrenal glands, which not only regulate blood sugar (a major problem with diabetes) they also affect the thyroid gland. In fact, many patients that come to us with diabetes problems also have thyroid conditions. We also do tests for food sensitivities and parasites for the list of “gasoline” items mentioned above.

Let me stress:

Without the right pieces of the puzzle, there is no way you’ll get your life back. And if your doctors haven’t done these tests, then you need to get to someone like me who will do the right tests.

We also look at your condition from a lifestyle and dietary perspective, as there are probably many things you are doing on a daily basis that is making your condition worse, and we can usually make just a few tweaks to your lifestyle that will allow your body to heal.

Are you ready to get your Type 1 Diabetes under control?

Are you tired of taking medication and seeing your symptoms continue? Then please contact us immediately to schedule a consultation, (714) 731-7680.

Do you have Type 2 Diabetes? Next week’s blog will cover Type 2 Diabetes exclusively, so check back. Not willing to wait? Contact us now to schedule your first consultation: (714) 731-7680.

Are you still suffering from your thyroid conditions? Are you frustrated by being told that your lab tests are “normal”? Most importantly, would you like to have your old life back?

If you’ve found your way here, you are most likely still looking for answers to your thyroid gland disorder. If you are still having the same symptoms while on your medication, or just looking for a holistic, natural method to manage your thyroid disorder, you’ve finally found a place that will truly help you.

If you are you suffering from the following symptoms, please read on:

• Tiredness and fatigue
• Weight gain
• Hair loss
• Gastrointestinal issues
• Depression and anxiety
• Heart palpitations
• Inward trembling
• Insomnia

Think of it this way: your body is like your car, your blood is like your oil and your brain is like your motor. What happens to your car’s motor if you don’t change the oil for three years, five years or even ten years? That’s right—your motor becomes damaged and the car stops working.

I am the only doctor in the Tustin area that is using both neurological and metabolic therapy to help patients with thyroid disorders, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

What we do is work with patients neurologically to rebuild that car motor. The brain is the most important organ in the body, and it can weaken. In the medical profession, this is called “brain degeneration”, and it’s what you see in dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients. The bottom line? If your brain is not working in harmony with the rest of the body, you will continue to have symptoms.

But if we only deal with the neurological side, all the hard work will be lost. We need to look at all organs in the body, because the body only functions when everything is working cohesively. For instance, if the adrenal glands aren’t working properly, liver congestion or a bad gut, do you think that will affect your thyroid gland? Absolutely.

The medical doctors are great at working with you when there’s a crisis or emergency, but few are great at getting your body functioning optimally, and that’s where practitioners like me come in. We go in depth to find out what’s happening in your body by running a full blood panel, which gives us a great deal of information. For instance, 90% of our patients have an autoimmune disorder, which means the body is attacking itself; Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune disorder, as is multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus and Celiac/Crohn’s disease—it all comes down to which tissue the body is attacking.

It’s like what happens if you pour gasoline on a forest fire; it will consume everything in its path. So, if no one is addressing your immune system and just giving you medication for your thyroid gland, yet you’re still suffering from the symptoms—that’s a huge piece of the puzzle in finding the solution to your thyroid problems.

We also look closely at the adrenal and pituitary glands in regards to the thyroid glands (more on that soon in another blog!), and look at the intestinal tract for bacteria, parasites, mold and yeast. Why? It’s simple: your gastrointestinal system is 60% of your immune system, and if you have a bad gut, your body just CAN’T HEAL. We need to know if we need to start with your gut to support your immune system that will then support your thyroid.

We’re not done yet. We also run genetic testing to look for food sensitivities and their cross reactive foods (those foods your body will still react to, even if you have stopped eating the food you are sensitive to). If you’re sensitive to certain foods, it can be making your condition worse! We will also go into these in more detail in future blogs. Managing your condition from a dietary standpoint is essential, otherwise the condition will never improve.

After reading the information in this blog, you should be able to see what makes us unique from other heath care practitioners: thorough, proper testing in all aspects of your body.

If you are tired of the Russian Roulette system of medication after medication, if you’re tired of living with your symptoms or if you’re seeing them increase, please contact us immediately to schedule a consultation, (714) 731-7680.

Do You Have Adrenal Gland Fatigue?

When I was speaking with a patient today, one of her first health concerns was the idea she was suffering from adrenal gland fatigue. She went on to tell me that she has been struggling with her symptoms for years, and doctors are not listening to her and only want to prescribe her anti-depression medications! “I am not depressed. I don’t like how I feel, but I am not a sad person that needs medication to help me feel better. I just want to feel better!”

First, you need to know what the adrenal glands are: they are your stress glands that respond to physical, chemical and emotional stressors.

When the adrenal glands are functioning properly, they help your body respond to stressors by releasing hormones that help to regulate sleep, digestion, metabolism, heart rate, and blood pressure.

5 Signs Your Adrenal Glands Are Not Functioning Properly

Patient X, let’s call her, Shania (I was in love with Shania Twain when I was younger ), went on to explain her symptoms to me:

1. Difficulty falling and stay asleep
2. Gaining weight around her hips and abdomen, despite low calorie diets and exercising several hours, 3-5 days a week
3. Craving salt, all of the time
4. Having joint pains recently, despite eating a Paloe type diet
5. Short term memory loss (recently, despite not having any head trauma)

Without running any specialized adrenal gland tests (I like the hormone test from www.dutchtest.com) , I told her it sounds as if her adrenal glands are having some trouble.

However, let’s test them and then figure out WHY they are not functioning properly.

Triggers That Can Stress Your Stress-Glands Out

After looking at Shania’s hormones (female and adrenal hormones), I was able to determine how to support her adrenal glands. However, I told Shania that we needed to calm down the triggers that caused her adrenal glands to malfunction.

After discussing her lifestyle, exercise routine, sleep patterns, and looking at other blood work, I discovered she has some of the common adrenal gland stressors I see in patients. Here are some of the big ones:

1. Lack of eating: A lot of women try to lose weight by cutting calories. When most people cut calories, they only eat a couple meals per day. This caused Shania’s blood sugar to drop, kicking her adrenal glands in the butt to work harder and to raise blood sugar.
2. Infections: I always run basic blood tests on my patients (67 markers in total, CLICK to download Dr. King’s Basic Blood Panel markers) before I look at anything else. Shania had two infections, a parasitic infection and a viral infection. Infections cause stress on the adrenal glands.
3. A lack of a normal sleep routine. Shania travels a lot with work; both, flying and driving. Multiple time zones each week were causing havoc on her adrenal glands, not to mention family life.
4. Hypothyroidism: this means her thyroid gland was not working up to par. In reality, I discovered that Shania not only had hypothyroidism, but that she was suffering from Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism (this is an autoimmune condition). When the thyroid gland is under-functioning, this puts more strain on your adrenal glands to tell the brain to release more thyroid hormone.
5. Food sensitivities! Yes, eating foods that your body has an allergy to/reacts to, can cause abnormal stress on the adrenal glands, forcing them to work harder in order to help your body’s immune system combat the “foreign invaders” that shouldn’t be there.

Ok, now that we discovered some of her triggers causing the adrenal gland insufficiency, what was the game plan to help get her better?

How to Improve Your Adrenal Glands

I had to teach Shania how to eat properly. Food sensitivity testing helped us narrow down what foods she was able to consume and which foods she must stay away from. Once we knew what she could and couldn’t consume, I set up an eating plan to help her stabilize her blood sugar throughout the day.

The one thing I needed to do, ASAP, with Shania was get rid of her infections. I started her on some natural products to accomplish this, while not destroying her good gut flora.

While I couldn’t tell Shania to quit her job (she was the sole bread winner for the family), we devised a plan to help her balance out the jet lag, time changes, and sleeping in hotel rooms several nights per week. I think her family appreciated this more than anyone.

Managing an autoimmune condition is difficult but here are a few steps we took to manage Shania’s Hashimoto’s Disease

• Healed her gut lining (I know, I didn’t discuss this as part of the problem, but for Shania it was)
• Supported her thyroid with natural thyroid support
• Detoxified her liver and gallbladder as those two organs play an important role in thyroid hormone utilization

But My Doctors Aren’t Talking to Me About This, What Do I Do?

I hear this A LOT! Luckily for you, you have made it to the end of the article, and I am about to tell you to…CALL ME! I specialize in working with patients like Shania and you, and I LOVE my work.

First things first, gather up your blood tests your doctors have been running on you. If you don’t have copies of them, call your doctor’s office and request them (they are yours by law, but you may have to sign some release forms). Now, see if your doctor ran the markers that I mentioned above. Again, (CLICK to download Dr. King’s Basic Blood Panel markers).

Just in case your doctor didn’t run those markers, don’t fret, I can get them run for you. I use a Co-op to order all my patients’ blood work through. The Co-op gives me the blood markers at a VERY reduced price. I run my blood work the same way patients do, even though I have a great PPO insurance plan, because the doctors never want to run the markers I ask them for.

If your doctor ran any specialized adrenal tests, I want to see those as well. The more pieces of information I can see, the better I can help you. Schedule a complimentary consultation to get started.

Once you are ready to schedule a time to speak with me, simply give me a call, (714) 731-7680. I like to speak to all new patients first, before we ever look at blood markers or any specialized testing. The call is complimentary and will last about 10-15 minutes. This is my way of seeing if I will be the right doctor for you.

OK…grab your phone and give me a ring! I look forward to speaking with you soon!