Heart Disease: An Infection You Say?
I have been having a lot of conversations recently about
heart disease with people both in my clinic and in my private life. It seems like whenever I mention that I
specialize in blood chemistry the first thing that comes to people’s mind is
their cholesterol. In fact, it seems
like cholesterol is the largest concern that people have about their health
these days! I agree that factors like
cholesterol can play an important role in the progression and onset of heart related
incidents, but I have to keep asking myself why this one concept has gained so
much weight over the other contributing factors. The larger picture of heart/vascular disease
goes way beyond the basic lipid panel that people think of when they think of
cholesterol. Indeed, when working up a
patient for heart or vascular related health concerns (or prevention) I personally
need to look at much more than just that simple lipid panel of total
cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL & LDL to feel that I have done anything to
screen for their wellness around the subject.
The focus of this article is not to detail each and every
part of a heart health wellness screen, but to briefly highlight one in
particular. Besides the fact that heart
health can be dependant upon healthy sex hormone balance, healthy thyroid
function, cholesterol particle size, homocysteine values, Lp(a) values,
inflammatory conditions, autoimmune conditions and more, it can also be
influenced by infection. And there is
one little bugger in particular that should be screened for in particular as a
first matter of importance when considering this part of your health.
H. Pylori – What it is known for:
Helicobacter pylori is a type of bacteria that generally
infects the lining of the digestive tract.
It is estimated that up to 3 billion people (50% of the population of
the world) are infected with this bacteria making it the most widespread
communicable pathogen known to man. This
infection can be passed via oral-oral transmission or oral-fecal transmission
by way of unsanitary food handling practices or certain sexual behaviors. The
most common signs and symptoms associated with H. Pylori are generally stomach
related. A person might present with
heart burn/acid reflux, gastritis, and/or ulcers. If a person has had an ulcer or currently has
an ulcer, H. Pylori should be a prime suspect!
The same goes for chronic acid
reflux. If a person does present with
these symptoms, terrible as they may be, it is a blessing. They know there is a problem. As it
turns out, approximately 80% of H. Pylori positive people show no symptoms
whatsoever!
H. Pylori – What it should be known for:
So 80% of people show no symptoms. That’s great! It is harmless right? Well, no…
It isn’t. The people who are
positive for the infection and show no symptoms are at the highest risk for
things like heart disease and stomach cancer.
The stomach cancer is a whole other discussion. But the heart disease connection, now that’s
something interesting! How does a gut
infection lead to an increased risk for heart disease? The answer is in more ways than one.
- H.
Pylori will stimulate an immune response within the body, but this
bacteria is quite tenacious and therefore very difficult to clear on your
own. This leaves the body in a
constant state of increased inflammation.
We are designed to tolerate random surges of inflammatory stress to
our systems but when inflammation goes long term problems begin to set
in. H. Pylori has that
ability. Chronic systemic inflammation
like this won’t create outward symptoms, but can still work to inflame the
blood vessels for example which can lead to vascular concerns.
- H.
Plyori has been shown to actually leave the gastro-intestinal system and
enter the blood stream where it can now infect the blood vessels
themselves. This causes local
irritation/damage on and within the arterial walls which attracts plaque
formation as the body’s attempt to “protect” the damaged arterial surface. This can even happen in a person with
low or normal cholesterol. Consequently
there are other infections that can also infect the arteries such as
Chlamydia pneumonia. There are also
viral infections to the same effect.
- Lastly
and a little less directly, any infection that resides in the digestive
tract leads to inflammation locally to the intestinal tissues. This can eventually result in what is
known as “Leaky Gut Syndrome.” This
condition basically means that there is a breakdown in the gut barrier
system which can lead to things like food sensitivities and a general inability
to block the nasty stuff that can get into our bodies and cause us harm. Once we lose this barrier system, all
sorts of things can work to inflame our system. And it is inflammation that will get us
in the end. When this happens, the
world we live in rapidly becomes a very dangerous place.
So in closing, don’t be fooled by the commercials on Statin
(cholesterol) medications. And don’t even be fooled by your medical doctor. Ask for an H. Pylori screen at the very least
if you have a history of heart disease or digestive conditions. Demand a thorough look at ALL your risk factors. This often overlooked infection can have
dramatic impacts on your health in general and more times than not comes with
no symptoms to warn you of the damage it is producing. I test my patients for this infection and
more as part of a basic wellness type screen.
And remember, this is only one part of heart health. Let go of the cholesterol model of heart
disease. It is working to cloud your vision of the potentially more important
players to the problem. Start looking
into the other equally valid and oftentimes more significant players in this
part of your health. And if your doctor
won’t do it for you, I am always happy to help!
I Eat Potatoes Therefore I Am Going to Die
Ok, now that I have your attention I will let you off the
hook. No, there is no connection between
eating potatoes and the assurance of death.
The reality is that we are all going to die eventually, and there is
also a strong possibility that eating potatoes will be a common occurrence
throughout a person’s life. So would it
be right to say that because a person eats potatoes that it will be a leading
factor in their demise? Of course
not. This connection is merely an
association and the one is not a causation of the other. In order to make a statement like that there
would need to be a controlled study with a non-potato eating control group, and
a group of people who eat potatoes. They
would both have to adhere strictly to their prescribed diets for very long
periods of time, say 20 - 30 years at least and a third party would then need
to crunch the data and come up with a statistical relevance of the
results.
Unfortunately this is not always what happens in the
mainstream world of health and wellness reporting. All too often there will be a headline or a
statement made by some agency stating for example, ”Women who take a multi
vitamin are at an increased risk for all types of death.” This is exactly what happened recently in a
journal article, “Dietary Supplements and
Mortality Rate in Older Women,” published in the Archives of Internal
Medicine, 2011, Volume 171(18):1625-1633.”
It would all seem rather legitimate being from a respected Medical
Journal, but if you really look at the study design you will see blatant flaws
which render statements like this to be completely illegitimate and out of
touch with evidence based science.
Unfortunately when there is an agenda at hand the powers that be can easily
use their status to promote whatever statements they want the general public to
believe. I have attached a review of
this study and the link here, and I urge you to read what it says. It may shed some light on the things that you
often hear touted on the TV, radio, or in magazines.
Should you choose not to read
these three pages let me provide for you a quick synopsis of the main points:
- This study followed 38,772 women over 18 years
with an initial intake and two follow up questioners that were mailed in
by the participants. The
questionnaires inquired about lifestyle practices, food intake, dietary
supplement use, weight, smoking status, hormone replacement therapy, and
the presence of diabetes or heart disease.
- Although study participants were asked about
their intake of dietary supplements, the study did not report how much
of any specific nutrient was consumed. Nor was information elicited
from the women regarding the chemical form of the supplement (e.g.,
picolinate versus sulfate) or the quality of the supplements that were
taken.
- No attempt was made to verify the accuracy of the
answers provided in the
questionnaires, nor were any of the participating women asked why they
were taking supplements, and no attempt was made to determine the impact
of taking—or not taking—supplements on any specific individual.
- In weighing the study’s findings, however, it
must be emphasized that the Iowa Women’s Health Study is a retrospective
study of already collected data. It is not a prospective, controlled
intervention study, i.e., it is not a “clinical trial,” in which
participants would be given a specific dietary supplement or a placebo and
then followed closely over time to observe not only the specific
outcomes but also the factors possibly contributing to those outcomes.
- “…simple association does not reflect causation. “
“My doctor said that everything looked normal…”
The title of this article is a mantra that I hear repeated over and over again in my clinic which unfortunately more times than not has little merit whatsoever. My patients generally come to me because they either do not want to go to a Medical Doctor for their concerns, or they have been there many times only to have been turned away with the statement that “everything is normal.” “I am sorry that you are not feeling well. Perhaps it is all in your head,” says the good doctor. Why is this? Why are people being turned away time and time again with legitimate health care problems? The focus of this article is to explain just that. My goal is to help you understand how these blood tests are put together and why they can be so misleading. And even more than that, how they can be used as a tool to sell more pharmaceutical drugs.
The first thing that you need to understand when getting a blood test done is the way that a doctor determines if you are sick or not. You will get the blood drawn, they will run the tests on it and you will be given a report (usually only if you ask for a copy) that will detail all of your personal values for each test. These values will be compared against a reference range usually on the right of the report. So for example if you get tested for a fasting blood sugar (seen on the report as “glucose”) you may come back with a value of 78 with the corresponding reference range of 65 - 99. This means that you fit nicely within the reference ranges for this test and the doctor would tell you that everything is normal. “But why doctor am I feeling so tired and jittery throughout my day?” “I don’t know miss… It could be stress. I am seeing a lot of stress in here these days… The economy and all.”
So what went wrong? This woman’s symptoms seem to point to a low blood sugar state, but the report says it is normal. This leads me to my next point. It is very important to understand that the reference ranges that the mainstream medical world uses are designed around an average of all the people who go into hospitals and clinics in a particular geographical area. So these are generally sick and injured people, or even people taking medications which can alter a blood test. These reference ranges are not meant for generally healthy people. In order for a person to be considered “hypoglycemic” or low blood sugar by a doctor their fasting glucose would need to be below 65. If this is the case, you are probably already in one of their hospital beds, not walking around town popping into the clinic for a check up. I can tell you that in my clinical experience, people with fasting blood sugars below 85 begin to feel the symptoms of hypoglycemia. These people are considered “Reactive Hypoglycemia” patients, and it is more common than you know.
I use both the mainstream reference ranges called “Laboratory Ranges,” along with a wellness based model called, “Functional Ranges,” when I work up a blood chemistry panel. The Functional Ranges will be tighter and allow the practitioner to see more clearly, and much earlier, the various mechanisms of disharmony going on before it becomes something more serious. This way of looking at blood chemistry is called “Functional Blood Chemistry,” and it is where I choose to specialize. Waiting for things to progress to full blown pathology is a mistake that mainstream medicine makes every day 100% of the time. It simply is an illness/injury based medicine. Wellness, as much as the Kaiser commercials want you to believe, is not in their repertoire.
If I can now take this one step further… There is one particular marker on a blood test that stands alone from the others. It is your total cholesterol. If you really look into the most current medical literature on the subject, total cholesterol by itself is not a good indicator for heart disease risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 50% of the people who die of vascular disease die with normal or even low total cholesterol! The other 50% have elevated cholesterol. But if you follow what has happened with the Laboratory ranges for this marker you will see that it has consistently gotten lower and lower over time. So if total cholesterol isn’t the true culprit for heart disease then why make the lab range lower? In my opinion, the answer lies in pharmaceutical sales. A doctor will diagnose a Statin class of medication when the total cholesterol is elevated beyond their reference range. So if you can lower the level of what is considered “elevated,” you can prescribe more medication to a greater number of people in the society. This has been done without supportive data or an obvious need besides drug sales. And since doing so and getting more people on these medications the death toll has not improved. So I ask you where is the merit here? I said that this marker stands alone because while all of the other makers on a blood chemistry report have gotten worse over time meaning that they are easier and easier to fit into, total cholesterol is the only one that has gotten harder to fit into. I for one find it rather fishy to say the least especially when Statin medications are among the most prescribed medications world wide and heart disease is still the #1 killer.
So to recap here for you:
• Laboratory Ranges are used by the mainstream medical establishment and are based upon illness and injury. These ranges are taken from an average of a local population who go into hospitals and clinics. There is no absolute consistency between labs on these ranges.
• Functional Ranges are based upon a wellness based system and allows the practitioner to be able to identify mechanisms going on in that patient well before the mainstream will recognize them. Looking at blood this way allows for the practitioner to treat symptoms or medical problems earlier before they reach more serious conditions or when the doctor can’t see them. It will also allow for the practitioner to find mechanisms which are seemingly unrelated at first glance but can actually be contributing factors to other more serious conditions. Blood sugar is a great example of such a marker. It can produce symptoms of its own if out of range Functionally speaking, as well as work as a driving force for other more serious things such as autoimmune disease and hormonal imbalance.
So there you have it. Not all blood work-ups are the same. The next time your doctor gives you the “All Clear,” on your blood test, perhaps it is worth a second opinion. Us Functional Blood Chemistry folks can pick up on some very important things that will routinely go unnoticed in the doctor’s office. My goal is to catch things early so that you don’t end up in the doctor’s office in the first place!
The first thing that you need to understand when getting a blood test done is the way that a doctor determines if you are sick or not. You will get the blood drawn, they will run the tests on it and you will be given a report (usually only if you ask for a copy) that will detail all of your personal values for each test. These values will be compared against a reference range usually on the right of the report. So for example if you get tested for a fasting blood sugar (seen on the report as “glucose”) you may come back with a value of 78 with the corresponding reference range of 65 - 99. This means that you fit nicely within the reference ranges for this test and the doctor would tell you that everything is normal. “But why doctor am I feeling so tired and jittery throughout my day?” “I don’t know miss… It could be stress. I am seeing a lot of stress in here these days… The economy and all.”
So what went wrong? This woman’s symptoms seem to point to a low blood sugar state, but the report says it is normal. This leads me to my next point. It is very important to understand that the reference ranges that the mainstream medical world uses are designed around an average of all the people who go into hospitals and clinics in a particular geographical area. So these are generally sick and injured people, or even people taking medications which can alter a blood test. These reference ranges are not meant for generally healthy people. In order for a person to be considered “hypoglycemic” or low blood sugar by a doctor their fasting glucose would need to be below 65. If this is the case, you are probably already in one of their hospital beds, not walking around town popping into the clinic for a check up. I can tell you that in my clinical experience, people with fasting blood sugars below 85 begin to feel the symptoms of hypoglycemia. These people are considered “Reactive Hypoglycemia” patients, and it is more common than you know.
I use both the mainstream reference ranges called “Laboratory Ranges,” along with a wellness based model called, “Functional Ranges,” when I work up a blood chemistry panel. The Functional Ranges will be tighter and allow the practitioner to see more clearly, and much earlier, the various mechanisms of disharmony going on before it becomes something more serious. This way of looking at blood chemistry is called “Functional Blood Chemistry,” and it is where I choose to specialize. Waiting for things to progress to full blown pathology is a mistake that mainstream medicine makes every day 100% of the time. It simply is an illness/injury based medicine. Wellness, as much as the Kaiser commercials want you to believe, is not in their repertoire.
If I can now take this one step further… There is one particular marker on a blood test that stands alone from the others. It is your total cholesterol. If you really look into the most current medical literature on the subject, total cholesterol by itself is not a good indicator for heart disease risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 50% of the people who die of vascular disease die with normal or even low total cholesterol! The other 50% have elevated cholesterol. But if you follow what has happened with the Laboratory ranges for this marker you will see that it has consistently gotten lower and lower over time. So if total cholesterol isn’t the true culprit for heart disease then why make the lab range lower? In my opinion, the answer lies in pharmaceutical sales. A doctor will diagnose a Statin class of medication when the total cholesterol is elevated beyond their reference range. So if you can lower the level of what is considered “elevated,” you can prescribe more medication to a greater number of people in the society. This has been done without supportive data or an obvious need besides drug sales. And since doing so and getting more people on these medications the death toll has not improved. So I ask you where is the merit here? I said that this marker stands alone because while all of the other makers on a blood chemistry report have gotten worse over time meaning that they are easier and easier to fit into, total cholesterol is the only one that has gotten harder to fit into. I for one find it rather fishy to say the least especially when Statin medications are among the most prescribed medications world wide and heart disease is still the #1 killer.
So to recap here for you:
• Laboratory Ranges are used by the mainstream medical establishment and are based upon illness and injury. These ranges are taken from an average of a local population who go into hospitals and clinics. There is no absolute consistency between labs on these ranges.
• Functional Ranges are based upon a wellness based system and allows the practitioner to be able to identify mechanisms going on in that patient well before the mainstream will recognize them. Looking at blood this way allows for the practitioner to treat symptoms or medical problems earlier before they reach more serious conditions or when the doctor can’t see them. It will also allow for the practitioner to find mechanisms which are seemingly unrelated at first glance but can actually be contributing factors to other more serious conditions. Blood sugar is a great example of such a marker. It can produce symptoms of its own if out of range Functionally speaking, as well as work as a driving force for other more serious things such as autoimmune disease and hormonal imbalance.
So there you have it. Not all blood work-ups are the same. The next time your doctor gives you the “All Clear,” on your blood test, perhaps it is worth a second opinion. Us Functional Blood Chemistry folks can pick up on some very important things that will routinely go unnoticed in the doctor’s office. My goal is to catch things early so that you don’t end up in the doctor’s office in the first place!
Of Pleasure & Pain: A Personal Experience & Some Gluten Free Food for Thought
I often write about the science and medical information behind many different kinds of disease states or pathologies we may have in our society, but today I want to write about something a little different. I want to explore with you (and myself) some of the psychology behind how and why we make the health choices that we do. I want to do this because how and why we make decisions plays a major role on the success of the medical experience and the quality of our lives in general. It is safe to say that there is a fair amount of philosophy involved in these decisions. And there is a whole lot of emotion involved as well. I want to share with you a recent discovery about my own health and some of the thoughts that I am struggling with. And while reading this article I would ask you to think about your own life and transpose yourself into a similar situation. What would you decide? How would you feel? I hope that you read this article with an open heart and a willingness to look at how you may be living your life and if that choice is really serving you in a healthy and positive way.
My story starts off pretty much like everyone else’s. I grew up in suburban San Diego. I belong to a very loving family and have had the best care that anyone could ask for. I grew up eating what everyone else ate… Pretty much everything. It was sometime in graduate school when I began to notice an increase in migraine type headaches. I was in school for Chinese Medicine so therapy was free and plentiful and I kept my headaches down to a minimum. But time passes and things tend to get worse. By the time that I moved back to San Diego, started a practice and a family the migraines began to increase in severity and frequency. Now, I have had a fair amount of head trauma in my day. One particular incident was a bicycle accident when I was 14 where I required reconstructive surgery on my face and had suffered a bad concussion. And I can count 4 times total where I have been knocked out cold or at least had my bell rung pretty bad, so headaches seemed appropriate given my history. Right around this time I also started noticing eczema like patches forming around my body. They were small but I noticed them and they itched. And just like the headaches they began to get worse. Something was going on here.
The more that I learned over the years of studying Functional Medicine the more I realized that my symptoms came from something that I was doing every day. Something that I eat probably since the skin usually always reflects the health of the digestive system. But the only thing is that I don’t have any gut symptoms. I decided to run some tests anyway. I never showed up positive for anything in any significant way so I kept on going with what I knew and ate whatever I wanted to eat. I don’t gain weight easily so carbs were of no concern to me. Those rushed morning bagel sandwiches, the occasional pastry and coffee, burritos, burgers… Why not, I am healthy. This was a comforting thing to know that I can eat what I want and not have any health problems. I can grab something out instead of making it myself. But why are my headaches getting worse? I had had enough and decided to pay for a new and much more advanced gluten screen for myself. After all, I teach this stuff and I tell my patents to do it so I should probably do it too.
What I found shook me to the core. All of the more basic gluten tests I have done in the past were all wrong! Not only am I just a little sensitive to gluten, I am very sensitive to the stuff. In fact I showed positive to a couple of other self tissue antibodies associated with gluten sensitivity as well. This means my immune system is attacking my own body as a direct result of the gluten exposure. The results of that blood test provided me with a positive diagnosis of a silent Celiac condition. It is considered silent because it does not come with the generally crippling digestive pains associated with Celiac Disease. But if I continue to eat gluten I run the risk of seriously compromising my health in the future. For me and others like me, gluten exposure equals tissue destruction. And tissue destruction will eventually lead to full blown Autoimmune Disease. I also know that I have two family members with Type I Diabetes and Optic Neuritis which are both Autoimmune Diseases. I can easily go that way too if I let myself. I choose not to. But it does leave me with an uncomfortable feeling about what my family is eating and how it may be contributing to their health.
So where does this leave me? Just two months ago I was living a care free life of eating whatever I choose in the false assumption that I was not hurting myself. After all, my stomach wasn’t hurting or blowing up like a baloon like all my other Celiac patients. Today I am faced with abandoning many of the things in my life that offer joy and happiness. The thought of not eating Chinese Dumplings ever again, or one of those fantastic Mona Lisa Italian Subs in Little Italy, or New York style pizza makes me sad to say the least. Or how about those bagel sandwiches that saved my ass many times on those rushed mornings between dropping my kids off at school and getting to my first patient of the day? I am in a bad spot. I am forced to decide about doing what I know is probably the most important health care decision that I can make for myself by avoiding those foods or I can continue to eat and feed my convenience / temporary happiness until something bad happens. Not a fun predicament.
In talking to many different people recently about this concept I have discovered one thing. People are horrified of the thought of losing gluten. Why? Why would we think this way when we have so much at stake? Many people have stated to me that they simply would not want to know if they are sensitive or not. They would actually rather live in ignorance and feed the reward centers of their brain with the yummy things before taking a more serious look at what may literally be killing them. And they are not shy about stating this outright. There is also just a basic disbelief that something like a food could cause so much trouble. So yes, people do look at me sideways sometimes.
In my readings over the years primarily in Eastern Philosophy I have come to understand that we humans have a very strong force within us. You can consider it the Ego Mind, or that uncomfortable, insecure spirit within us which drives our thoughts and decisions. This Ego Mind is constantly at odds with the outside world. It is constantly at odds even with its own body. For example, it is cold outside and “I” (the spirit mind) am uncomfortable. “I” don’t like the way that guy looked at me. “I” am uncomfortable in this chair. “I” don’t like eating vegetables. Whatever it may be for you, there is an insecure ego which if allowed to, will drive the decision making. This is the case with even the most secure of us humans. At our core we are insecure beings and much of what we see in society supports this concept. In Neurology this can be attributed to a center in the brain called the Limbic System. This is the reward / punishment system and is very powerful. It is where addiction takes hold. When you feel happiness you are feeling the Limbic System. It is the first place that we process our sensory inputs from the outside world. Second to that comes the rationality of it all from our Frontal Lobe. Unfortunately the reward centers are very powerful and can strongly influence the rational part of our brains. Give “Me” (the ego mind) what I want! I won’t be happy unless you do! Think of this part of your mind kind of like a spoiled child who wants his ice cream and will throw a tantrum if he does not get it! This is what I am feeling right now. This is what others hearing my story feel when they think about themselves giving up something like gluten. This is what parents of Autistic children may feel when they are told that their child cannot have gluten or dairy. “It is just too hard!” “That’s all he will eat!” There are all kinds of reasons our Limbic Brains can come up with to get what it wants.
So here I am… I am forced into this philosophical debate between my Fontal Lobe which really knows better, and my Limbic Brain which just wants to be happy and get what it wants. Lucky for me, my knowledge and training keep me on track. I also get the privilege of working with very chronically ill people who suffer worse problems associated with their gluten sensitivity. And please understand that these people have very chronic and serious conditions. I do not want to get to that point. And more than that, I do not want my patients to get to that point either. The reality is that once you make a change like this and begin to feel better, the loss of the yummy things becomes much easier. You find new yummy things. And just feeling well is yummy in of itself! For me I have not had a migraine since stopping the gluten. I consider that yummy. I get to spend more quality time with my family when I don’t have a migraine. The migraines though were just a symptom, or warning light of larger problems going on. And boy am I glad the I finally listened!
So if you are feeling achy, tired, bloated, have chronic headaches, or have ever been diagnosed with an Autoimmune Disease, gluten could be to blame. The quality of your life could dramatically improve by cutting this one thing out of your diet. I am currently working towards building a specialty clinic in Celiac and Autoimmune Disease so stay tuned for this in the next 6 months. Get yourself tested and give yourself a good educated chance to counter the little comments that the Ego Mind is telling you every day. You never know how something like this could change your life for the better!
My story starts off pretty much like everyone else’s. I grew up in suburban San Diego. I belong to a very loving family and have had the best care that anyone could ask for. I grew up eating what everyone else ate… Pretty much everything. It was sometime in graduate school when I began to notice an increase in migraine type headaches. I was in school for Chinese Medicine so therapy was free and plentiful and I kept my headaches down to a minimum. But time passes and things tend to get worse. By the time that I moved back to San Diego, started a practice and a family the migraines began to increase in severity and frequency. Now, I have had a fair amount of head trauma in my day. One particular incident was a bicycle accident when I was 14 where I required reconstructive surgery on my face and had suffered a bad concussion. And I can count 4 times total where I have been knocked out cold or at least had my bell rung pretty bad, so headaches seemed appropriate given my history. Right around this time I also started noticing eczema like patches forming around my body. They were small but I noticed them and they itched. And just like the headaches they began to get worse. Something was going on here.
The more that I learned over the years of studying Functional Medicine the more I realized that my symptoms came from something that I was doing every day. Something that I eat probably since the skin usually always reflects the health of the digestive system. But the only thing is that I don’t have any gut symptoms. I decided to run some tests anyway. I never showed up positive for anything in any significant way so I kept on going with what I knew and ate whatever I wanted to eat. I don’t gain weight easily so carbs were of no concern to me. Those rushed morning bagel sandwiches, the occasional pastry and coffee, burritos, burgers… Why not, I am healthy. This was a comforting thing to know that I can eat what I want and not have any health problems. I can grab something out instead of making it myself. But why are my headaches getting worse? I had had enough and decided to pay for a new and much more advanced gluten screen for myself. After all, I teach this stuff and I tell my patents to do it so I should probably do it too.
What I found shook me to the core. All of the more basic gluten tests I have done in the past were all wrong! Not only am I just a little sensitive to gluten, I am very sensitive to the stuff. In fact I showed positive to a couple of other self tissue antibodies associated with gluten sensitivity as well. This means my immune system is attacking my own body as a direct result of the gluten exposure. The results of that blood test provided me with a positive diagnosis of a silent Celiac condition. It is considered silent because it does not come with the generally crippling digestive pains associated with Celiac Disease. But if I continue to eat gluten I run the risk of seriously compromising my health in the future. For me and others like me, gluten exposure equals tissue destruction. And tissue destruction will eventually lead to full blown Autoimmune Disease. I also know that I have two family members with Type I Diabetes and Optic Neuritis which are both Autoimmune Diseases. I can easily go that way too if I let myself. I choose not to. But it does leave me with an uncomfortable feeling about what my family is eating and how it may be contributing to their health.
So where does this leave me? Just two months ago I was living a care free life of eating whatever I choose in the false assumption that I was not hurting myself. After all, my stomach wasn’t hurting or blowing up like a baloon like all my other Celiac patients. Today I am faced with abandoning many of the things in my life that offer joy and happiness. The thought of not eating Chinese Dumplings ever again, or one of those fantastic Mona Lisa Italian Subs in Little Italy, or New York style pizza makes me sad to say the least. Or how about those bagel sandwiches that saved my ass many times on those rushed mornings between dropping my kids off at school and getting to my first patient of the day? I am in a bad spot. I am forced to decide about doing what I know is probably the most important health care decision that I can make for myself by avoiding those foods or I can continue to eat and feed my convenience / temporary happiness until something bad happens. Not a fun predicament.
In talking to many different people recently about this concept I have discovered one thing. People are horrified of the thought of losing gluten. Why? Why would we think this way when we have so much at stake? Many people have stated to me that they simply would not want to know if they are sensitive or not. They would actually rather live in ignorance and feed the reward centers of their brain with the yummy things before taking a more serious look at what may literally be killing them. And they are not shy about stating this outright. There is also just a basic disbelief that something like a food could cause so much trouble. So yes, people do look at me sideways sometimes.
In my readings over the years primarily in Eastern Philosophy I have come to understand that we humans have a very strong force within us. You can consider it the Ego Mind, or that uncomfortable, insecure spirit within us which drives our thoughts and decisions. This Ego Mind is constantly at odds with the outside world. It is constantly at odds even with its own body. For example, it is cold outside and “I” (the spirit mind) am uncomfortable. “I” don’t like the way that guy looked at me. “I” am uncomfortable in this chair. “I” don’t like eating vegetables. Whatever it may be for you, there is an insecure ego which if allowed to, will drive the decision making. This is the case with even the most secure of us humans. At our core we are insecure beings and much of what we see in society supports this concept. In Neurology this can be attributed to a center in the brain called the Limbic System. This is the reward / punishment system and is very powerful. It is where addiction takes hold. When you feel happiness you are feeling the Limbic System. It is the first place that we process our sensory inputs from the outside world. Second to that comes the rationality of it all from our Frontal Lobe. Unfortunately the reward centers are very powerful and can strongly influence the rational part of our brains. Give “Me” (the ego mind) what I want! I won’t be happy unless you do! Think of this part of your mind kind of like a spoiled child who wants his ice cream and will throw a tantrum if he does not get it! This is what I am feeling right now. This is what others hearing my story feel when they think about themselves giving up something like gluten. This is what parents of Autistic children may feel when they are told that their child cannot have gluten or dairy. “It is just too hard!” “That’s all he will eat!” There are all kinds of reasons our Limbic Brains can come up with to get what it wants.
So here I am… I am forced into this philosophical debate between my Fontal Lobe which really knows better, and my Limbic Brain which just wants to be happy and get what it wants. Lucky for me, my knowledge and training keep me on track. I also get the privilege of working with very chronically ill people who suffer worse problems associated with their gluten sensitivity. And please understand that these people have very chronic and serious conditions. I do not want to get to that point. And more than that, I do not want my patients to get to that point either. The reality is that once you make a change like this and begin to feel better, the loss of the yummy things becomes much easier. You find new yummy things. And just feeling well is yummy in of itself! For me I have not had a migraine since stopping the gluten. I consider that yummy. I get to spend more quality time with my family when I don’t have a migraine. The migraines though were just a symptom, or warning light of larger problems going on. And boy am I glad the I finally listened!
So if you are feeling achy, tired, bloated, have chronic headaches, or have ever been diagnosed with an Autoimmune Disease, gluten could be to blame. The quality of your life could dramatically improve by cutting this one thing out of your diet. I am currently working towards building a specialty clinic in Celiac and Autoimmune Disease so stay tuned for this in the next 6 months. Get yourself tested and give yourself a good educated chance to counter the little comments that the Ego Mind is telling you every day. You never know how something like this could change your life for the better!
My Recent Interview on Sexual Energy
I was honored recently to be interviewed by my friend and colleague Dr. Jenn Gunsaullus, Ph.D. for her weekly video podcast called "In the Den with Dr. Jenn." I was asked to speak on the topic of sexual energy which in my opinion is a much neglected part of our health. It is extremely important to consider our sexual health as not only a mirror into our overall wellness, ie. poor health leads to poor sexual energy, but also as a tool to strengthen our bodies and our spirits.
I will keep this blurb short and let the video speak for itself. Please enjoy the interview and of course if this discussion brings up anything for you please feel free and safe to contact me directly. I am here to help in many different aspects of your health... Sexual health certainly included.
For more videos and information about Dr. Jenn, who offers "a place for open and honest communication around sex, intimacy, sexuality, eroticism, sexual health, and relationships," check out her website. She has over 127 podcasts on many topics. You're sure to find something educational and her fun style is super entertaining. It's the best way to learn!