Friday, September 30, 2005

Gymnema: Very Promising Natural Diabetes Cure

If you click on the title above you will be taken to a website with a pdf file. Once you open go straight to the clinical trial/study part of the file. I don't recommend this product from this company and maybe I will explain sometime. What I do recommend is that if you have diabetes that you do some research on this herb. The preliminary trials are extremely promising and one even shows reversal of glaucoma caused by high blood sugar levels.

If you are looking for the best source of Gymnema let me know. It appears that no matter how minimal or major your diabetic condition is, Gymnema shows promise without all the side effects of the many medications that are prescribed for this condition. Of course regular exercise and low carbohydrate diets also help significantly. If you thought you had to live on glucophage or some similar medication, maybe you should rethink.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Paxil: Another Damaging Medication

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T LIKE STRONG OPINIONS DON'T READ ON: (click on the title above)

Just when you thought you had seen the last in a long string of terribly damaging effects of medication, think again. This one is especially horrific given that part of pregnancy often involves some hormonal swings or even depression. Paxil is in a class of mood altering drugs known as SSRI's. It appears now that Paxil causes birth defects in the first trimester of pregnancy. You can read about some of the harmful effects of these types of medications by checking out the link.

I guess this is no surprise. I will probably step on toes here but I will risk that for the truth. The presence of an anti-depressant or mood altering medication does not equal happiness in your life. If you are continually jockeying medications to try to find happiness in your life you will continue to run into dead ends. These dead ends will be poor health, severe and damaging side effects and an ever increasing list of prescription medications. These medications will never really answer why you are not happy in the first place, and will leave you with no answers and lots of side effects.

Happiness is not related to what medications you are taking. Let me say that again: Happiness is not related to the medications you are taking. It is related to making a decision in your life that you will seek happiness and peace at whatever cost. That you will uncover the painful and ugly things that you have swept under the rug in order to keep going in your life and that you will "correct" them.

This may mean getting rid of toxic relationships, jobs, relatives etc, and actually admitting that you have been used to and to a certain extent enjoyed unhappiness in your life. You have to decide that you want something different and then you must pursue it with the utmost determination. My belief is that happiness in your life is completely controlled by YOU. Not by a medication, a bad situation, a health trial, someone else's' poor behavior etc etc etc.

When we start taking responsibility for our own unhappiness or happiness that is when we can take control of the choice for happiness. Our society has bought into the lie that our unhappiness is due to the people, things or situations around us. Therefore, since we can't control these things we should take a medication that will "take the edge off" so we can deal with life.

Garbage

I know I will catch flack from the chemically imbalanced people who will say its genetic and I can't control it. For these people I can show you people in my practice and others in the real world who have made a choice to overcome their chemical depression or bipolar situation by deciding they wanted something different in their lives. The medical profession has foisted on us the idea that our depression or psychological problems are not in our control. I find this disturbing and sad.

I will predict that we will continue to see prescription medications announced that have damaging effects on the body. The list will grow ever longer and you will have to decide if you want to medicate your life or if you want to live it. If you want help moving forward both nutritionally and emotionally please let me know. I have suggestions on how this can be achieved.

One more that came out today

Sunday, September 25, 2005

What is wrong with the Natural Way

I read this article and got a good chuckle. The basic gist is that people don't have time for sex anymore so they are getting IVF treatments done which have lots of risks for the woman and her body. While this is true, about the risks, what caught my eye was the idea that we are always trying to mess with what God has created.

In almost every area of our lives our society tends to do this. Let me give some examples.

1. Using food supplements that are not from food sources. Thinking you can supplement the body with something other than food which is what the body was designed to take in.

2. Cloning: trying to reproduce living kind in ways that we were not designed to recreate living beings

3. Genetically altering food that was created to be a certain way. Trying to improve on what was already created perfectly.

4. Trying to build buildings and cities in areas where weather patterns and conditions tell us we should not build.

These are just a few examples. I could go on and on. I decided i might start looking in my health and spiritual life and start evaluating where i am trying to make my own improvements on what was designed perfectly. Maybe you will do the same. Let me know what you come up with.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Rita Update - Sorry not really health related

If you click on the title above you will be taken to one of the best local houston news stations. You can download there coverage on your computer if you have dsl or cable probably. They are currently saying that this should hit very close to the texas/lousianna border. But recently the jog to the north that the eye was supposed to take has not happenned. It looks like it is actually taking a jog to the west. This is a very difficult thing to predict because as the storm gets closer to land fall it tends to wobble more which can shift land fall significantly.

Wind is gusting here at our house in The Woodlands, which is about 47 miles in land as the crow flies. We appear to be on the clean side of the hurricane which is a good thing. It looks like we will have winds of 75-100 mph for a period of 10 - 12 hours with very severe rains.

We are ready and have our friend and nanny type person Maria and her family staying with us. We have about 25-30 gallons of drinking water and 200 or so gallons of water that is in tubs or pools for toilet flushing and bleach purificaition if needed. We have lowered the temperature in the fridges and the ac is on 68 degrees.

We appreciate all your prayers for your safety. we will be safe as possible and will be taking shelter in the center downstairs of the house between 12-2 am tonight.

Thats it for now will blog more later

Rita Update - Sorry not really health related

If you click on the title above you will be taken to one of the best local houston news stations. You can download there coverage on your computer if you have dsl or cable probably. They are currently saying that this should hit very close to the texas/lousianna border. But recently the jog to the north that the eye was supposed to take has not happenned. It looks like it is actually taking a jog to the west. This is a very difficult thing to predict because as the storm gets closer to land fall it tends to wobble more which can shift land fall significantly.

Wind is gusting here at our house in The Woodlands, which is about 47 miles in land as the crow flies. We appear to be on the clean side of the hurricane which is a good thing. It looks like we will have winds of 75-100 mph for a period of 10 - 12 hours with very severe rains.

We are ready and have our friend and nanny type person Maria and her family staying with us. We have about 25-30 gallons of drinking water and 200 or so gallons of water that is in tubs or pools for toilet flushing and bleach purificaition if needed. We have lowered the temperature in the fridges and the ac is on 68 degrees.

We appreciate all your prayers for your safety. we will be safe as possible and will be taking shelter in the center downstairs of the house between 12-2 am tonight.

Thats it for now will blog more later

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Rita Update

Here is the latest from our little part of the world.

I45 the large interstate was at a standstill at 3am this morning. I was going to Walmart to try and find some water and Yeah I did. As i was driving back south the line of traffic going towards Dallas was incredible. People were standing outside their cars the traffic was moving so slowly. Many cars were overheated and some spewing smoke. A friend of a friend of ours left galveston yesterday and it took them 17 1/2 hours to reach Tyler texas, normally a four hour trip.

Today looks much the same on the highways. I have heard at noon they will open the south bound lanes of I45 to traffic going northbound on the evacuation route. This should help. Galveston is completely cleared out and it looks like it has the highest probability of being the center of landfall, this would mean that the center of the eye will probably go straight over my house forty miles inland. I guess, for the silver lining, this means we are better off from a wind perspective than if the storm were more west of us, but worse for rainfall levels.

Thats it for now, i gotta go try to find some plywood.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Take Control

No link for this post, just some musings. I was thinking, as this category five hurricane bears down on the coast, that as human there are many things that we have little or even no control over. That realization is hard to face for the "control freak" in me. That at any moment my life is a speck in the great cosmos of life and can be snuffed out at a moments notice.

In many ways there is lots of stress tonight as I right this blog. I'm thinking of my children and others who are and may be without food and water and cool air for some time. I have no idea how this will affect my office or my patients and their lives. I am concerned for and about them all. They are my patients but also my friends.

I have sort of made a pact with myself as this hurricane heads my way with deadly force. The pact is that, I am going to redouble my effort from this point forward in my life to take control of things I do have control over. So many times I realize that the things I have control over I don't do anything with or about and I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to control things which cannot be controlled, or at least not to any sufficient degree.

I hope, if you are in a place in your life where you feel like you are out of control, you will take the next few days to decide to take charge of things you can control.

1. Maintaining and improving your relationship with God
2. Maintaining and improving your health and body
3. Maintaining and improving your family relationships
4. Maintaining and improving your financial health
5. Maintaining and improving your home and belongings that have been trusted to your care.

These are just some ideas. Make the committment now to take stock. For all of you in the path of Rita, our prayers and God's blessings will be with you.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Fish: To Eat or Not To Eat

We have long known that mercury levels tend to be higher in fish that reside in ocean and gulf waters. This article, which you can access by clicking on the title above, was specifically sampling store bought swordfish. The question is what do we do about this situation.

We know that fish oils are good for children with learning disabilities and behavioral/mood disorders. We also know that high concentrations of mercury are not good for these very same kids. So What do we do?

In my office I recommend that once every couple of years you have a hair analysis done (this should be done more frequently for those with health related issues). For children and adults, this is helpful for giving the levels of elemental toxins and helpful elements contained in the hair. For a little less than a hundred dollars you can see what is happening with heavy metal levels in your body. Hair levels of toxic elements that are high can indicate toxic levels in the bodies system as a whole.

I use Great Smokies Lab. I think they are the best diagnostic lab in the country. Weigh the risk, eat in balance and where you can, eat organic wild fishes from freshwater.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Visceral Fat

As if regular fat is not enough, we now have experts commenting on our visceral fat. This is the fat around the outside of our organs. This is different from the fat that most of us see hanging around our midlines, saddle bags and other less fun places to look at. Visceral fat in studies has been correlated with tissue insulin resistance and with metabolic disease.

The solution is simple and there is no short cut. Exercise and proper diet combined with plenty of hydration and rest is the key. All the get skinny fast schemes that are out there don't work or they have terrible side effects. Don't be fooled there is no shortcut, so stop looking for one. I have patients tell me all the time about the latest, greatest thing they have heard of that supposedly helps you lose weight while you sleep. Bull, there is no such thing.

Just eat a balanced diet that is low in simple carbs and exercise a minimum of four times per week for a minimum of 30 minutes in your target heart rate. Happy weight loss is right around the corner.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Folic acid otherwise known as Folate

Folate or Folic acid has long been used in higher doses during the first trimester of pregnancy to reduce the incidence of birth defects. What is not talked about is what type of folic acid supplement you use. Many times the standard OB/GYN will recommend a synthetic and fractionated multivitamin which is often times highly unabsorbable. That is why most pregnant Mom's will describe that after being on the prenatal vitamins they start pooping bricks. This is because the synthetic iron in the prenatal vitamin is almost completely unabsorbable and makes the stools hard. This should tell you something about the other nutrients in that same supplement.

I use a prenatal vitamin and a mineral that is produced by Nutri-West. Nutri-west is a leading manufacturer of whole food, pharmaceutical grade, and organic nutrition. It is better than any product I have ever seen for prenatal supplement support. The vitamin and mineral are separate and are chelated for greater absorption. Check out their site or give me an email and we will get you information. Trust me it will be a blessing to your pregnant family and friends.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

More Mad Cow Poopy

Click on the Title/Link above.

Like most of the goofy assertions that are being brought forth for the cause of Mad Cow Disease, this one is crazy. This author, without any substantiation for his claim, states that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE is caused by cows feeding on human remains.

You will notice in the article, that words such as "circumstantial evidence" and "new theory" are used. Also you will note no research or statistics to support hypothesis. This kind of ridiculous hypothesis that is supported by unscientific assertions is what is used to attack the use of bovine glandular supplements.

Up to the date of the writing of this blog post, there has not been one case of BSE in the United States. Furthermore, there have been no cases of BSE caused by any nutritional supplement. So rest assured, you can continue with the nutritional protocol that your naturopath or holistic chiropractor has recommended without fear that is drummed up by the scientist, big pharma or the AMA

Have a great day

Monday, September 05, 2005

Apologies

Sorry, that I have not posted recently. I have been doing alot of processing about the Hurricane situation and making decisions about how we are going to respond with assistance in our family. I hope you will consider some type of giving whether it be time, money, goods, emotional support etc. I guess my previous post about the "Healing Law of Giving" came at the right time.

We are thinking and praying about all who have ties to the destruction and devastation that have occurred in our country. We will survive and be stronger I know.