Friday, August 26, 2005

The Healing Law of Giving

This title is the same as an article by Christiane Northrup, MD. You have probably seen her on PBS a time or two if you watch that sort of thing. She is author of Womens' Bodies, Womens' Wisdom. She wrote a wonderful article about giving and why it is good for your health.

Below is a citation from her article:

Because of the seamless connection between our bodies, our thoughts and our surroundings, you can actually achieve health in your physical body by giving away something of value. Think about this carefully. though it seems this can't be true, it is true. Thoughts tend to become their physical equivalents. Thoughts that are resentful, critical, self-centered, and bitter create congestion. When you believe that your doctor charges too much, that wealthy people are ripping you off, or that it's too expensive to eat healthy, you're thinking thoughts that increase congestion. Ponder (Catherine Ponder) points out that unhealthy people are often self-centered people who clutch their health problems to them for dear life ! Giving helps them to think about others in a way that is very therapeutic, helping to free both their minds and bodies.

This article was printed in The Well Being Journal. I highly recommend this journal and the cost is not bad. It is a great source for natural healing information. If you would like a reprint of the article on The Healing Law of Giving please let me know and I will fax to you.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Validation of The Placebo Effect

If you will click on the link above you will read a great article about the placebo effect. For years, this "effect" as it has been called was used to explain why people will get well with a sham treatment. Of course these sham treatments are usually anything that the medical community believes has little or no scientific support or validity. The treatments are usually outside of their excepted paradigm for healthcare.

I have always told my patients that I could care less whether they got well because of some treatment they explored, a nutritional or herbal remedy that was taken or because they believed they would get better. What I care about as a practitioner is whether or not my patients health picture improves. I can try to prove later why what we did works, but in the mean time people are suffering and need healing.

I will let the researchers' go about the heady work of trying to prove how the human body works. It has been said that at this stage of our human existence, we know approximately 1 percent of all there is to know about the human body. I think I'll let someone else spend the next million years trying to figure out the other 99%.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

The War on Drugs

If you click on the title above you will be taken to an interesting article. The title of the article is ,"Losing War on Drugs, Survey Says." I don't really have much to say about this article because I didn't even read it. Maybe you will and you can give me an update.

The reason I didn't read it is because I couldn't get my mind past the title. My assumption was that the article was about how drug use is on the rise again in our country. This is no surprise to me and so I decided not to read further. How can our illegal drug use not be on the rise when we are telling every age group in our society that they need some "legal" form of narcotic or other mood altering type medication just to deal with life ?

We have children being prescribed ADD and ADHD drugs that haven't been tested on children. We are telling adults between 20-50 that they should take medication for any pain, ache or anxiety that makes them feel less than youthful (physically and sexually) or supremely confident.

Finally, to top it off we put our elderly on an ever increasing number of medications until their health decreases to such a non-functional level that they head for the grave.

What kind of message are we sending to society, and more importantly our children, when the solution to many of life's' issues is to pop a "drug" ?

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Does Medical = Scientific?

There is an assumption that many make that medications and all procedures or treatments in the hallowed halls of medicine are scientific. Here is the definition for randomized controlled clinical trials .

Check out this study regarding arthroscopic knee surgery. Low and behold the placebo or sham group reported lower pain scores on arthritis pain reporting scales. This "scientific" surgical procedure has been the standard of care in treating damaged knee cartilage for the past 20-30 years but is less effective than a sham procedure. How could this be you might be wondering ? I wonder too, especially if it was the "standard of care".

Thought to consider: It might be helpful to acknowledge that much of medicine, chiropractic, physical therapy or any other healing art is highly unscientific. I often tell my patients that this is why doctors "practice". Self-serving message: Maybe you will even cut your holistic, mind-body practitioner a little slack as you ask him or her about the science behind what he is recommending.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Eating healthy food does the body good


I am amazed when an article by the "experts" tells us what we already know then explains common knowledge like new fact.

Stop the presses: Researchers state that eating vegetables (in this case carotenoids) is good for our joints. The research didn't say fractionated or synthetic vitamins with partial carotenoids in them are good for you--the whole vegetable is good for you.

There are two options for helping joints with carotenoids. First, is to eat more of the carotenoid vegetables, basically anything that has that bright orange or slightly yellow color. Secondly, is to supplement with a whole food, organically grown pharmaceutical grade supplement.

Whole food supplements aren't in your local Health Food store though. (Some new ones exist but they aren't not grown on organic farms, which changes the nutritional value.) Email me at drclouthier@sbcglobal.net and I will send you more information on whole food supplements and why your body was designed for them.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Addiction, is it part of the human condition ?

Why do people reproduce, with regularity, a behavior that is known to have adverse effects on the body and increase the risk of skin cancer? Read more about tanning addiction here.

All addictions do this: rob people of time, money and resources they could spend fulfilling their God-given purpose. One person gets lost in alcohol another in porn another in work another in tanning. If a substance or activity is used chronically, obsessively to avoid your higher purpose, it's an addiction. But it can change!
  1. Acknowledge to yourself and to someone else if at all possible that you have an addiction, so that you are help accountable for your behavior.

    2. Pray and meditate and ask for help from a higher source, a source of help can also be a friend, pastor, counselor or family member if they are not also part of the problem. This should not replace the help from a higher source.

    3. Replace the addictive behavior/urge with a new behavior. For example, if everytime you open the refridgerator you tend to grab a carbohydrate to "stuff yourself or your feelings", replace that habit with a new pattern. Something like this: When I go to the fridge next time, instead of opening the door and looking for a "carb", I am going fill my glass with water from the water dispenser and leave.

I encourage you to give your addiction one more effort using this simple formula. It is worth it to fulfill your true purpose.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Emotional Suffering.... Then What ?

If you will click on the title of this post you will be taken to an article which recently recounts a trip that the author made to Sri Lanka. The author wanted to witness the cleanup and rebuilding that is occurring as a result of the Tsunami.

I was reminded as I read this article: Life throws us severe emotional trauma sometimes. There is a scripture in the Bible that says, "the
rain falls on the just and the unjust".

If suffering in our lives can be totally random, what is the best way to deal with it ? My belief is that we only have one thing we can control: the choices we make. We can make a choice of what meaning we will give to a happening that has occurred in our life. Whether it is a tsunami, loss of a family member, spouse or child, end of a relationship, financial ruin, severe health trial, sexual or physical abuse etc., we will always have this choice.


Ultimately, the choice we have to make is to choose happiness and love over sadness and hurt. Unfortunately, life goes on in the midst of trials, and sometimes it feels like you can't even get your feet underneath you.

Making a positive "choice" may sound too "pie in sky" or too fluffy. I once felt that this perspective minimized my difficulty. I didn't believe one could choose in a moment to view even the worst of circumstances in a useful way. I will suggest two books for you to read:

Happiness Is A Choice - by Barry Neil Kaufman
Man's Search for Meaning - by Victor Frankl

Friday, August 12, 2005

Hypochlorhydria: Could this be you ?

Disclaimer: this information is not intended to take the place of recommendations by your local qualified health provider, IT JUST MAY CONTRADICT THEM IN EVERY WAY.

One of the most common problems and misdiagnosis I see in my office relates to digestive complaints. I find it a marvel that current medical treatment continues over and over to misdiagnose this condition and often with severe long term consequences to the patients health. I have many patients that list as a problem on their intake form: Gas, bloating, burping, constipation, diarrhea etc. Many of these conditions is corrected with simple adjustment to the acidity level of the upper digestive tract, specifically the stomach. Also as a side note, many of these conditions are also side effects of the multiple prescription drugs patients are prescribed these days.

The current medications that are prescribed: Nexxium, Prilosec, Prevacid and the myriad of over the counter antacid drugs have one thing in common. They are designed to decrease the acid producing ability of the body. When the stomach and upper digestive becomes more alkaline bad things happpen as you can read in the link above. I won't bore you with my rendition.

There appears to be support for the idea that the increase use of antacids and the like, decreases the ability of the immune system to function adequately and may be a cause of the increase in incidence of pneumonia in our elderly population who pop antacids like lemon drops. Another words, an alkaline digestive tract is not good for the immune system.

It is also somewhat common knowledge that stomach acidity drops as we age, hence another vote for the potential or apparent increase in aging of those who are poorly digesting.

If you are looking for suggestions on how to fix your stomach issues here are some:

1. Find someone who will work with you to get off acid decreasing medications and knows something about "whole food nutrition"

2. Start taking a supplement called Zypan (A Standard Process Whole Food Supplement)

3. Make sure that you have adequate B vitamins on board.

4. Find ways to reduce and process emotions of low self esteem (feeling bad about yourself) and over sympathy (feeling sorry for yourself and others) as they are the emotions and emotional patterns that often times affect the stomach meridian.

I have a great article that I would love to fax you that is not online. If you contact me, I will make sure you get it. It is scary in its description of the ultimate path of hypochlorhydria and may sound awefully familiar to you. Maybe you can forward this to a friend or family member who's digestive issues have either offended your nose or your bathroom.

Happy digesting on this wonderful evening and thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Are We Responsible ????

While the pediatricians and nutritionists were quick to suggest to parents to start healthy eating habits early, my question still remains. From the start of a young girls' life we have other factors at work that encourage this kind of prepubescent obesity.

1. School and Daycare lunch and snack programs that are loaded so full of carbohydrates and empty calories with little of no nutritional value that we only encourage these young girls to become junk food-aholics. Soda and Vending machines located in schools and readily available to children.

2. School lunch programs devised by "nutritionists" and dieticians that are still working off of the FDA model of the food pyramid which is completely backward. These programs have usually three different food groups. A fruit, a vegetable, and a starch but all heavily slanted toward the higher carbohydrate containing members of that family.

3. Medical professionals (yes the same ones that may have been involved in writing the article and correcting you about your dietary choices at home) who prescribe various and assundry anti depression and mood altering medications that almost all list as a side effect -- guess what -- weight gain.

Lets get real here, there is a lot more at work than what is served on the tables at young girls homes in the USA every day.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Welcome to My Blog

Yes, i have finally decided to come in to the 21st century. Being an Alternative and Natural Health doctor does not always coincide with being up to date on the latest innovations and technology in computers. I usually use the internet and microsoft word like a pro and leave the other mundane issues such as how the computer actually works and what to do if anything goes wrong to people with actual intellect and brains. All that being said, you are privy to my first post to my blog which will be regularly updated with information that i have gleaned from years in practice, lots of reading and clinical application. I hope that you will read regularly, come back often and send this blog address to any and all of your friends that are looking for ways to improve their health. I think you will find it informative and hopefully insightful. I have had patients that I consult with from different parts of the country ask me for more information regarding what I do. I thought this would be a good forum for those people to refer to from a distance.