Diabetes on the Run through Functional Medicine

Fact: some Type 2 diabetics can become no longer diabetic. With no insulin or other glucoregulating medications.

I am not there yet with a current 68 year-old patient. But, in three weeks of active treatment he has been able to reduce his insulin by 1/3!

He is on 7 drugs for high blood pressure, and during the same 3 weeks his systolic blood pressure (the high number) has dropped from 150 to 120!

Yes, he has lost about 15 pounds at the same time!

How, you ask. No gluten. No dairy. Better diet. More veggies. Magnesium glycinate, B-complex, potent multivitamin/multimineral, fish oil, and lipoic acid. A change from hopelessness to a science-based awareness that it is probable that his health can improve. Real caring. And some good old-fashion chiropractic spinal adjusting.

This might be called Functional Medicine. As my patient and I choke back our tears, we call it a blessing.

How I Became Addicted to Tums

As a child I had a sensitive stomach.

By 16 my medical doctor prescribed Maalox for my budding duodenal ulcer and recommended that I drink milk to coat my stomach.

My heartburn and gut pain continued and so did my multi-time per day use of antacids. I’ve lost track now, but somewhere between 16 and 40 I transitioned from Maalox to Tums. Maybe because I learned that one of the active ingredients in Maalox was aluminum hydroxide.

By age 35 it had become clear to me that all dairy products, including the milk that my medical doctor had recommended, were causing me gut pain and intestinal gas. I stopped all; completely. At the same time I realized that food from most all restaurants caused me digestive distress. Stopped that too; completely. My gut problems lessened.

When the year of my 40^th birthday rolled around, having removed offending foods from my diet and begun taking digestive enzymes with my meals, my tummy was feeling so good that I cold-turkeyed the Tums on April Fools’ Day 1991. I sensed there was something auspicious about the occasion, and fortunately kept my half-full, last bottle of Tums for posterity and the educational value.

I write this history on April Fools’ Day 2015. Twenty-four years now without a single antacid after 24 years of daily use. No joke!

Morals: Listen. Think. Understand causes. Understand systems. Don’t cover problems with drugs.

When is a Detox not Just a Detox?

Dr. Young and Dr. Minich

Actually, the first question is; what is a detox? As we know, detox is short for detoxification. Generally speaking, it is a practice to improve health. A fuller answer to that question is; detox means many things to many people, and as a concept, it is ever evolving.

A detox is not just a detox when:

• It is a group event, accessible to people all around the world,
• It is designed and organized by Deanna Minich, PhD,
• Its design includes world-class online instruction about the whats, whys, and hows of detox,
• Its creators have included emotions and spirit as well as biochemistry and liver function as factors that influence toxicity and detoxification,
• The creators recognize that this program is not the final word, but rather a full conversation of what we know today,
• It is created and offered in collaboration with the Institute for Functional Medicine.

If you are looking to feel better, get healthier, and participate in a detox that is not just a detox, join us from September 4-29 by clicking this link now:

https://dm177.isrefer.com/go/challenge/kychiro/

Dr. Kristofer Young

Politics Can Negatively Affect Your Health: But There is a Cure

 “In 2012, for example, $66 million was spent on ads against a cigarette tax, with big contributions from Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Yet, the public was told that the ads were "paid for by Californians Against Out of Control Taxes and Spending."” (source: Ventura County Star: http://www.vcstar.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-help-voters-by-revealing-whos-paying-for-ads_64152538)

Currently, in California, and other states, tobacco companies, Monsanto, big pharma, corporations that produce “food” for the standard American diet (SAD), and other wealthy entities can provided enormous funding for ballot measures that negatively affect the health of Californians, and can do so secretly and under the guise of intentionally deceptive names like Californians Against Out of Control Taxes and Spending.

You’d think this would be illegal in a democracy. But remember the power of money to create laws that favor money over people.

Politics can negatively affect our health when we don’t inform ourselves, don’t communicate with our elected officials, and don’t exercise our right to vote.

This week (August 25-29, 2014), we the people of California, have an opportunity to change this by making sure that our Assemblymembers vote YES on Saturday the 30th of August for SB 52 the DISCLOSE Act.

If you want the truth, you need to call your California Assemblymember as early in the week of Aug. 25-29 as possible! This vote will determine whether the primary funders of ballot measure campaign advertisements in California have to be clearly DISCLOSED in the ads.

There are currently powerful efforts being made to keep SB 52 from passing. Substantial efforts are being made by labor organizations. I am in favor of labor organizations, but secret money is not appropriate for them, or giant corporations, or wealthy individuals, or political action committees (PACs)!

If you live in Assembly District 37, please contact our Assemblymember, Das Williams at (916) 319-2037 and let his staff know that you want the DISCLOSE Act passed; that the people must come first before labor, corporations, the wealthy, and the PACs.

Das Williams is an excellent elected official. But don't assume that he will be voting for SB 52. I spoke with him and his staff on August 22nd and at that time he was not able to commit to voting for the bill. He explained that there is currently much discussion/argument about the details of the bill. This bill and its previous versions have been discussed for years. There is no excuse to not pass SB 52 now!

If you live in another district in California, please call your Assemblymember! Use this link for a 1-2-3 of how to find and call your Assemblymember, and know what to say! http://www.caclean.org/phone?name=call-sb52

Take the cure! Call your California Assemblymember now! Protect your health by protecting your right to know!

To Vitamin or Not To Vitamin?

There has been a small firestorm since the publication on December 17, 2013 of an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine entitled “Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements”. This editorial concluded with the following statements; “we believe that the case is closed— supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful. These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough.”

 http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1789253#r1-11

Let me cut to the chase, I’m going to continue recommending vitamin and mineral supplements for my patients, and continue taking supplements myself.

One of the tip-offs that the content of this editorial would be of questionable value is its use of the phrase, “the case is closed”. No “case” in science is ever closed. Science is always open to new evidence, new viewpoints, and even to rehashing the old. This comment is at best foolish and at worst, rude.

The title “Enough is enough”, even without an exclamation mark, sounds more like an emotional statement than scientific guidance.

In the course of its admonishments, the editorial advises against vitamin supplementation for “well-nourished” adults. But what is “well-nourished”. We have neither scientific agreement on what constitutes “well-nourished”, nor methodology for measuring it. These writers claim that the study subjects lacked for no vitamins, minerals, amino acids, nor essential fats, but, they never tell us how they proved this in the subjects studied.

To additionally explain why I will not follow the recommendations of the editorial, I will briefly comment on the first of the three studies referenced in the editorial. That study was titled, Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: An Updated Systematic Evidence Review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1767855

This study, as stated in its title, was looking at whether nutritional supplements alone would prevent a first occurrence of either cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer (CA). This is a fine study question, but would anyone really expect that vitamin and mineral supplements, particularly the one-size-fits-all supplements used in the reviewed studies, by themselves prevent CVD or CA? It is well established that diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors are major factors in both diseases. We know that all disease-influencing and health-influencing factors blend together in the body and contribute to a net outcome. Importantly, if supplements, as utilized in these studies, do not by themselves protect against CVD and CA, it still cannot be concluded that the supplements were of no benefit. When combined with other appropriate lifestyle measures, supplements may well provide health benefits, and even reduce the incidence of disease and mortality.

Others who also appear not to have been convinced by the “Enough is Enough” editorial include:

Why You Should Not Stop Taking Your Vitamins  by Mark Hyman, MD

http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/10/18/why-you-should-not-stop-taking-your-vitamins/

Vitamins Can Help Prevent Heart Attacks by Dr. Leo Galland

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/vitamins-can-help-prevent_b_4570908.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

4 Supplements to Start Taking Today by Dr. Tom Sult

http://justbewell.info/Blog/4-supplements-to-start-taking-today.html

Why You Should Keep Taking Your Supplements by Ronald Hoffman, MD

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12055/why-you-should-keep-taking-your-supplements.html

A Vitamin & Supplement Cheat Sheet by Frank Lipman, MD

http://www.goop.com/journal/do/267/a-vitamin-supplement-cheat-sheet?utm_source=GOOP150&utm_medium=TWITTER&utm_campaign=1242014VITAMINMUCH